Iran fires up advanced centrifuges in latest nuclear step

Rouhani warned that Iran would flout the nuclear deal unless EU provided a solution

PTI7_15_2019_000020B Iranian President Hassan Rouhani | PTI

French President Emmanuel Macron dangled a $15 billion bailout for Iran to save the nuclear deal. He even orchestrated a meet between Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and Trump during the G7 summit. But, his American counterpart was not impressed, nor did the move do anything to make things better between Iran and US or resolve tension around the nuclear deal. 

On Saturday, Iran said it has fired up advanced centrifuges to boost its enriched uranium stockpiles, in the latest scaling back of commitments under a crumbling 2015 nuclear deal. Iran had warned European signees of the nuclear deal that they would enrich uranium reserves to weapons-grade level unless US sanctions on the nation were not repealed. 

The country's Atomic Energy Organisation said that it would honour commitments to give UN inspectors access to monitor its nuclear sites.

Britain, France and Germany have been engaged in talks to try to rescue the 2015 deal that gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme. Tensions started escalating between US and Iran after US President Trump pulled out of the JCPOA deal and imposed trade sanctions on Iran. And this has crippled the nation's economy to a large extent. 

On Saturday, Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation said it had activated 20 IR-4 and 20 IR-6 centrifuges as its latest step back in rolling back its commitments.

In June Iran downed a US drone and Trump ordered retaliatory strikes before cancelling them at the last minute. Post this, UK detained an Iranian oil tanker in the Strait of Gibraltar as it was found to be a violation of US sanctions on Syria. The tanker was released on August 16, but yesterday, US decided to blacklist vessels and individuals associated with the 'oil of terror' network. These meant that those doing business with blacklisted entities “are now exposed to US sanctions.” 

On July 1, Iran said it had increased its stockpile of enriched uranium to beyond the 300-kilogram maximum set by the deal.

A week later, it announced it had exceeded a 3.67-per cent cap on the purity of its uranium stocks. This move, however, was easily reversible. This move too is a long way before it reaches actual weapons-grade levels. 20 per cent enrichment of 400 kg uranium is the threshold for a crude nuclear weapon, but, weapons-grade uranium would be the same quantity enriched to 90 per cent. 

"We currently do not need 20 per cent enrichment, and if we do so at some time, we will first increase the 4.5 per cent stockpile and then act," said Behrouz Kalamvandi, the agency's spokesperson. He added that "If Europe wants to do something, it must hurry because returning to the situation before reducing commitments could take time.”

"The centrifuge machines, as they are engaged in research and development, will help with increasing the stockpile," said the agency's spokesman, Behrouz Kamalvandi.

"The capacity of these machines is many times more than the previous machines. This started as of yesterday (Friday)," he told a news conference in Tehran.

As per the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran was allowed to enrich uranium using only first-generation — or IR-1 — centrifuges. 

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said he was "not surprised that Iran has announced that it's going to violate the JCPOA".

"It's no surprise that the Iranians are going to pursue what the Iranians have always intended to pursue," he said in Paris.

"They had been violating it, they had violated the nuclear non-proliferation treaty for many years, so it's no surprise that the Iranians are going to pursue what the Iranians have always intended to pursue," he added, following talks with his French counterpart Florence Parly.

Esper was in France after visits to London and Stuttgart, Germany, to meet with NATO allies since taking up his post in July. 

Kamalvandi said Iran would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to continue monitoring its nuclear programme, as it has done under the 2015 accord.

The EU voiced "great concern" over the country's decision to roll back its commitment to the JCPOA accord and emphasised its reliance on the UN nuclear watchdog to monitor Iran's activities 

 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had warned that Tehran would further reduce compliance and flout mandates stated in the 2015 nuclear accord if Europe fails to provide a solution before September 7. 

The announcement came on the eve of a visit to Iran by the acting head of the IAEA, Cornel Feruta, who would also meet with the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi, and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.