Iran begins preparations to boost uranium enrichment programme
● Tehran tells UN its nuclear project ‘remains within agreed limits’
Iran ran has told the UN nuclear watchdog it will increase its nuclear enrichment capacity within the limits set by the 2015 agreement with world powers.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for Iran’s nuclear agency, was quoted by state TV as saying a letter was submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) detailing the move.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had ordered the increase in a speech on Monday, in which he vowed that the country would preserve its nuclear programme despite the US withdrawal from the landmark 2015 accord.
Iran has said it has the option of resuming industrial-scale enrichment now that the US has withdrawn from the deal. The agreement set strict limits on Iran’s uranium enrichment in return for the lifting of US and international sanctions.
The head of Iran’s atomic agency told reporters that it was developing infrastructure to build advanced centrifuges at the Natanz facility.
The agency informed the UN of the move, but said it would remain within the rules of the deal.
President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the deal with Iran last month.
European powers are now trying to salvage the agreement, which imposes restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for lifting sanctions.
A spokesman for the international Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said yesterday that the agency had received a letter from Iran on 4 June informing it that there was a “tentative schedule to start production of UF6”, referring to uranium hexafluoride, the feedstock for centrifuges.
The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi, told reporters that preparations were under way to build new centrifuges.
He said: “If we were progressing normally, it would have taken six or seven years, but this will now be ready in the coming weeks and months.”
Mr Salehi said this was in line with instructions from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who has ordered officials to be prepared to step up enrichment if the nuclear deal – known as JCPOA – falls apart completely.
“If the JCPOA collapses – please pay attention, if the JCPOA collapses – and if we decide to assemble new centrifuges, we will assemble newgeneration of centrifuges. However, for the time being, we move within the framework of the JCPOA,” Mr Salehi said.
Mr Salehi insists Iran is acting “within the framework of the rules and commitments of the nuclear deal”.
The accord signed with the US, France, Germany, the UK, Russia, and China, limits uranium enrichment by Iran to 3.67 per cent, far below the roughly 90 per cent thresh- old of weapons-grade material. In exchange, the country received relief from sanctions.
Under the agreement, Iran can build parts for the centrifuges as long as it does not put them into operation within the first decade.
Mr Trump argued that these conditions did not go far enough to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and pulled out of the agreement, leaving the remaining European signatories scrambling to save it.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful. Its compliance with the deal has been verified by the IAEA.
When the Trump administration withdrew from the accord, it announced that it would resume sanctions and impose new penalties unless Iran dramatically changes its policies on other issues not covered by the deal, including its ballistic missile program and support for regional militant groups.
Iran currently is using nearly 5,000 centrifuges and enriching uranium at 3.5 per cent.
It says it needs more enriched uranium for its only nuclear power plant.