ISLAMABAD – Ali Akbar Salehi, vice president and head of the Atomic EnergyOrganization of Iran, announced earlier on Tuesday that Tehran would beginenriching uranium on 6 November at a 5-percent level at a facility inFordow, where the process had earlier been suspended by the Iran nucleardeal.
A spokesperson for the US Department of State said later on Tuesday thatTehran’s expansion of uranium enrichment is “a big step in the wrongdirection”.
“We fully support the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inconducting its independent verification role in Iran and look to the IAEAto report on any developments”, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said in a separate statement on Tuesday that Iran’sexpansion of its uranium enrichment activities is an attempt to extort theinternational community.
“Iran originally constructed the Fordow facility as a fortified,underground bunker in which to conduct secret uranium enrichment work …Resuming uranium enrichment at this previously clandestine site is only thelatest Iranian attempt to extort the international community”, thespokesperson stressed.
According to an earlier statement by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani,Tehran will start injecting gas into centrifuges at the Fordow FuelEnrichment Plant at the level of 5 percent, an activity that was previouslybanned under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known asIran nuclear deal.
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Tehran, however, said that the decision was reversible and Iran wouldsuspend its promised gasification as soon as the JCPOA signatories compliedwith their commitments.
Iran started the third stage of rolling back nuclear obligations under theJCPOA in September. The gradual reduction of the obligations was announcedon 8 May, the first anniversary of the US’ unilateral pullout from the 2015pact. Tehran then announced that it would start abandoning some parts ofits nuclear obligations every 60 days unless European signatories to thedeal ensured Iran’s interests amid Washington’s reinstated economicsanctions.
Prior to the Trump administration’s unilateral pullout, the JCPOA wouldhave seen Iran switching to peaceful nuclear uses, repurposing its FordowFuel Enrichment Plant to produce stable isotopes and refraining fromenriching uranium, leaving Natanz as the only uranium enrichment facility,Sputnik has reported.
