Tehran (Iran): In a latest reminder to save the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran has begun injecting gas into advanced centrifuges to increase its stockpile of enriched Uranium, an official announced on Saturday.
“The agency had started up the advanced 20 IR-4 and 20 IR-6 centrifuges as a third step by Tehran in scaling back its commitments under the crumbling pact following the United States’ unilateral withdrawal last year,” said
Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson for Iran’s atomic energy organisation of Iran, cited by Al Jazeera.
“We have started lifting limitations on our Research and Development imposed by the deal … it will include development of more rapid and advanced centrifuges,” Kamalvandi said.
“The capacity of these machines is many times more than the previous machines. This started as of yesterday (Friday),” he continued, adding that “all these steps are reversible if the other side fulfills its promises”.
Iran’s move to enrich Uranium comes days after came a day after the US slapped fresh sanctions on Tehran’s space agency, accusing it of disguising a ballistic missile programme.
Tehran and Washington have been in disagreement since May last year when US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal and began re-imposing a multitude of sanctions.