Step four: Iran set to increase its enrichment capacity

Iran will start injecting gas into centrifuges at its underground Fordow fuel enrichment facility, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday, “concerning” the EU and complicating European efforts to salvage the country’s 2015 nuclear deal.

Under the deal between Iran and major powers, Iran agreed to turn Fordow into a “nuclear, physics and technology centre” in which 1,044 centrifuges are used for purposes other than enrichment, such as producing stable isotopes, which have a variety of civil uses.

The pact allows Iran only to spin the centrifuges at Fordow, located inside a mountain near the Shiite holy city of Qom, without injecting gas. Uranium gas injection could allow production of enriched uranium, banned at the facility under the pact.

“Starting from Wednesday, gas will be injected into centrifuges at Fordow as part of our fourth step to reduce our nuclear commitments to the deal,” Rouhani said in a televised speech. He did not specify what kind of gas will be injected into centrifuges at Fordow. However, the move would be a breach of the deal because nuclear material is banned from Fordow.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, agreed to in 2015 between Iran and six other nations, includes a mechanism for dealing with breaches, but so far this has not been used.

The measure will complicate the chances of saving the accord, which European powers have called on Iran to respect.

“The announcement by Iran on November 5 to increase its enrichment capacity goes against the Vienna agreement, which strictly limits activities in this area,” French foreign ministry spokesperson Agnès Von Der Mühll said.

“The deal has become a noman’s land. We’re controlling less and less as it crumbles around us,” said a senior European diplomat. “In terms of credibility it becomes harder and harder to not react.”

Rouhani gave another twomonth deadline to Britain, France and Germany to salvage the deal by protecting Iran’s economy from crippling US sanctions reimposed in May after Washington’s withdrawal from the deal. “We can’t unilaterally accept that we completely fulfil our commitments and they don’t follow up on their commitments,” Rouhani said.

In reaction to Washington’s “maximum pressure” policy, Iran has gradually scaled back its commitments to the deal, under which it curbed its nuclear programme in exchange for the removal of most international sanctions. Tehran says talks are possible if the US lifts sanctions and returns to the deal.

A key factor for EU countries is the assessment of Iran’s latest actions by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which oversees its nuclear activities.

“They haven’t really changed their approach. They are provocative but the measures they have taken up to now are reversible,” one EU official said.

“But the longer they push it, this reversibility is going to disappear.”

2 the months Iran has given Britain, France and Germany to save the deal

6 the number of countries that signed the nuclear deal with Iran