More Advanced Centrifuges Installed at Nuclear Sites

“Thanks to our diligent nuclear scientists, two cascades of 348 IR2m centrifuges with almost four times the capacity of IR1 are now running with UF6 successfully in Natanz,” Kazem Gharibabadi said in a post on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

He added that Iran also started the installation of two cascades of IR6 centrifuges at its Fordow nuclear facility.

“There’s more to come soon,” the ambassador said.

In another tweet, Gharibabadi said Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of the progress as planned, adding that the IAEA “is yet able to verify”.

Back in May 2018, former US president, Donald Trump, pulled Washington out of the multilateral nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, reached between Iran and major states in 2015 and adopted the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran with the declared aim of forcing Tehran to negotiate a new deal.

Iran remained fully compliant with JCPOA for an entire year but as the remaining European parties failed to fulfill their end of the bargain, Iran began in May 2019 to scale back its JCPOA commitments under articles 26 and 36 of the accord covering Tehran’s legal rights.

In one of its latest steps away from the deal, Iran on Jan. 4 announced the beginning of the process to enrich uranium to 20% purity at Fordow to reciprocate the American withdrawal and the European failure to uphold the deal.

New US President Joe Biden, who was vice president when the deal was signed, has said he hopes to return Washington to the deal. However, his foreign policy team has said Iran should take the first step by coming back into “full compliance” with the JCPOA.

Iran, however, says it will only reverse its reciprocal measures, if the United States lifts its sanctions as a prelude to rejoining the deal.