Iran commits new breach of nuclear deal: UN agency

VIENNA/NEW YORK: Iran has committed a further breach of its nuclear deal with major powers by enriching uranium with advanced centrifuges, and plans to install more of those advanced machines than previously announced, a UN nuclear watchdog report showed on Thursday.

Iran is breaching the restrictions of its landmark nuclear deal with major powers step by step in response to US sanctions imposed since Washington pulled out of the agreement last year. The deal only lets Iran accumulate enriched uranium with just over 5,000 of its first-generation IR-1 centrifuges.

“On 25 September 2019, the Agency verified that all of the (centrifuge) cascades already installed in R&D lines 2 and 3 ... were accumulating, or had been prepared to accumulate, enriched uranium,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in the report to member states. Those lines include relatively small cascades of up to 20 centrifuges. The report said Iran is still in the process of installing two previously announced 164machine cascades of the IR-4 and IR-2M models, two cascades that were removed under the deal.

SYRIA’S ASSAD USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS: US

The US has confirmed that Syrian President Bashar al-assad’s forces used chemical weapons in May, secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Thursday, vowing a response. The Assad regime used chlorine on May 19 as part of its deadly offensive in the rebel stronghold of Idlib, Pompeo said.