IRAN TO BEGIN URANIUM ENRICHMENT AFTER NUCLEAR SITE INCIDENT

DUBAI Iran said Tuesday it would begin enriching uranium to 60 per cent purity, a move that would take the fissile material much closer to the 90 per cent suitable for a nuclear bomb, a day after Tehran accused arch-foe Israel of sabotaging a key nuclear site.

The disclosure came soon before the resumption of talks in Vienna aimed at reviving Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, an accord Israel fiercely opposed, after former U.S. president Donald Trump abandoned it three years ago.

Announcing 60 per cent enrichment, chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi also said Iran would activate 1,000 advanced centrifuge machines at Natanz, a nuclear installation hit by an explosion on Sunday that Tehran called an act of sabotage by Israel.

However, an Iranian official told Reuters later that “60 per cent enrichment will be in small quantity” only.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, had been informed of the decision, Araqchi told Iran's English-language Press TV from Vienna.

An IAEA spokesperson said: “We have seen the media reports you are referring to. We don't have a comment at this time.”