The IAEA reported that the Iranian regime has launched advanced centrifuges at Natanz, a further violation of the nuclear deal

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported Wednesday the Iranian regime started operating the “advanced centrifuges” which had been moved to an underground sector of the Natanz plant, the main uranium enrichment center.

In accordance with the nuclear agreement signed in Vienna in 2015, Tehran is not allowed to use centrifuges, the most common method of enriching uranium, so sophisticated.

In a report released last week, the UN agency reported the removal of centrifuges following an explosion at another facility, described as “sabotage” by the Islamic Republic.

From May 2019, Iran gradually abandoned its commitments in response to the US withdrawal from the agreement signed in Vienna, in 2015, and the reintroduction of sanctions by President Donald Trump’s administration.

According to the latest IAEA report, the amount of lightly enriched uranium is now 12 times the authorized limit. The agreement allows Tehran to continue using 5,060 first generation centrifuges, with lower capacity, although it limits the storage of enriched uranium up to a maximum of 300 kilos.

It was after reading this document that Donald Trump reportedly interviewed senior US officials about the possibility of “taking action” against an Iranian nuclear site, possibly Natanz, according to the newspaper. The New York Times this week.

Participants in the meeting, including the Vice President, Mike Pence; the secretary of state; Mike Pompeo; the new interim secretary of defense, Christopher Millerand the chief of staff general, general Mark Milley, dissuaded the president from carrying out a military attack at the risk of rapidly escalating into a wider conflict, the New York daily said.

Following this information, the spokesman for the Iranian regime, Ali Rabií, said any military action against his country would be met with “an overwhelming response”.

When asked about the matter, the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, refused to speculate on any possible scenario: “We have not received any information”.

The IAEA chief also revisited the suspicious place in Tehran’s Turquzabad district, denounced in the past by the Israeli government as the scene of secret atomic activities.

The agency recently asked “Iran for a complete and timely explanation on the presence of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin (deriving from human activities)”. “What they tell us, from a technical point of view, does not hold up”, explained Rafael Grossi. “They must explain to us why we found what we found.”

“Otherwise we have to worry about the content and scope of what (the Iranians) tell us.”, warned the Argentine.

The North American delegation criticized in the plenary session of the board of directors as “Totally unacceptable” Iran has not resolved the origin of these fissile traces in nearly two years.

For its part, Iran confirmed that it has begun injecting gas into a chain of advanced centrifuges. The Persian representative to the IAEA, Kazem GharibabadiHe stressed that the international agency has verified that step taken by Tehran four days ago.

“Iran has started introducing (uranium hexafluoride gas) UF6 into the recently installed cascade of 174 IR-2m centrifuges at the Natanz fuel enrichment plant.”Gharibabadi wrote on his Twitter account.

Centrifuges are the most common method of enriching uranium in the gaseous state (hexafluoride). They work by separating the isotopes of U235, present in only less than 1% of natural uranium and necessary for sustainable fission, from the more massive U238. Uranium slightly enriched is the one whose presence of U235 has been brought to a percentage between 2 and 5% and is used in nuclear power plants; propulsion engines, such as those used by submarines, require 20% enriched uranium and nuclear weapons require more than 80% enrichment. For this reason, non-proliferation standards limit higher enrichment.

In accordance with the provisions of the nuclear agreement, Until now, Iran has only used first generation IR-1 centrifuges to enrich uranium to a maximum level of 3.67% U235.

In its latest report on Iran, published last week, UN inspectors explained that the Iranians started by installing a cascade of even more modern IR-4 type centrifuges, although not yet of the IR-6 type.

According to recent calculations by the Washington Institute for International Science and Security (ISIS), the three cascades with machines of the type IR2m, IR-4 and IR-6 would increase Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity by nearly 50 %.

The same institute estimates in an analysis of the latest IAEA report that Iran would now need less than six months to obtain enough enriched uranium for two bombs.

The Iranian authorities hope that the elected president of the United States, Joe Biden, return to the nuclear deal – sponsored under the Barack Obama administration – and revoke Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy.

In this regard, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohamad yavad zarif, he said today in an interview with a state newspaper that the United States can easily return to the nuclear deal but “is unable to set the conditions.” “If the US fulfills its obligations under resolution 2231 (UN), we will honor our JCPOA commitments,” he said.

With information from AFP and EFE

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