ISLAMABAD – The acting head of the UN nuclear watchdog on Monday called onIran to “respond promptly” to the agency’s questions regarding Tehran’snuclear programme.

Cornel Feruta was addressing the quarterly board meeting of theInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) a day after meeting high-levelIranian officials in Tehran.

He said that in his meetings he “stressed the need for Iran to respondpromptly to agency questions related to the completeness of Iran’ssafeguards declarations”, adding: “Time is of the essence.”

Earlier Monday, the IAEA confirmed that Iran was installing advancedcentrifuges, a move that puts further pressure on the troubled 2015 nucleardeal with world powers.

The IAEA’s latest statements come a day after Tehran hit out at Europeanpowers, saying they had left Iran little option but to scale back itscommitments under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In its statement, the IAEA added that the centrifuges had been installed atIran’s Natanz facility and all of them “had been prepared for testing withUF6 (uranium hexafluoride), although none of them were being tested withUF6 on September 7 and 8, 2019”.

Iran has also informed the IAEA that it will take steps to accommodate “acascade of 164 IR-4 centrifuges and a cascade of 164 IR-2m centrifuges”.

Under the JCPOA Iran is only meant to enrich uranium using the lessadvanced IR-1 centrifuge model.’Wrong approach’

Iran has said that notwithstanding its reduction of commitments under theJCPOA, it will continue to allow access to IAEA inspectors who monitor itsnuclear programme.

Iran has already broken the limits on uranium enrichment levels and theoverall stockpile of enriched uranium laid down in the JCPOA. The landmarkaccord has been under mounting pressure since the US withdrew from it inMay 2018 and then re-introduced sanctions on Iran.

Earlier Monday, China — a signatory to the JCPOA along with France,Germany, Britain and Russia — called on the US to “give up its wrongapproach such as unilateral sanctions and extreme pressure against Iran.

“At the same time, all parties to the agreement should also committhemselves to the full and effective implementation” of the JCPOA, Chineseforeign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing.

“We hope that the relevant parties can meet at halfway and push for theeasing of tensions around the Iranian nuclear issue,” Hua said. -APP / AFP