[ad_1]
The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, said that Iran delivered a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency announcing that it intends to start the 20% uranium enrichment process soon.
Salehi added, speaking to Fars, that taking this measure is an implementation of the Iranian parliament’s decision to lift sanctions and preserve national interests.
Salehi explained that the IAEA was informed that the fertilization process would be under his supervision.
He noted that starting the process requires changes to devices that were 4% enriched and converting them to devices that were 20% enriched.
Salehi confirmed that the organization is awaiting an order from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to implement this, and that the enrichment will be at the Fordo nuclear facility.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran had informed it of its intention to produce 20% enriched uranium, a rate much higher than that stipulated in the nuclear deal.
The agency indicated that Iran would carry out enrichment operations at the Fordo underground facility, in implementation of a law passed by the Iranian parliament, adding that Tehran did not clarify when enrichment activities would begin.
The Iranian move is the latest of many announcements that Iran recently reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which included abandoning the commitment to more terms of the nuclear deal that was reached with the major powers (5 + 1) in 2015, steps that started in 2019 in response. On Washington’s withdrawal from the agreement and the re-imposition of sanctions on it.
This step was one of the steps contained in a law passed by Iran’s parliament last month, in response to the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who is the country’s greatest nuclear scientist, and Tehran blamed Israel for his assassination.
These steps by Iran would complicate US President-elect Joe Biden’s efforts to return to the nuclear deal.
Biden had declared his adherence to the nuclear deal, from which outgoing President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018, and re-imposed tough sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The nuclear agreement stipulates that the percentage of uranium enrichment will be set at less than 4%, while the percentage required for the manufacture of nuclear weapons will reach 90%.
The main objective of the agreement was to extend the time that Iran might need to produce enough radioactive materials for a nuclear bomb, if it decided to do so, up to at least one year, from a period of approximately two to three months, and the agreement lifted international sanctions imposed on Iran.
US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency believe that Iran had a secret and coordinated nuclear weapons program that it halted in 2003, and Iran denies having such a program at any time.
[ad_2]
