TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran announced Sunday that it has begun enriching uranium to 20 percent with complicated centrifuges at its underground Fordo nuclear plant, state television reported, an escalation that comes amid a stalemate with the West over its ramshading atomic deal.
That Tehran is enriching uranium to 20 percent purity, a technical step above 90 percent military-grade grade, with a new set of its more complex centrifuges in a mountain-center facility is a blow to the already limited chances of reviving the deal. .
Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said uranium enriched to 20 percent was first collected at the IR-6 centrifuge complex on Saturday. He said Iran informed the U. N. nuclear watchdog about the progression two weeks ago.
Centrifuges are used to centrifuge enriched uranium to higher degrees of purity. Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers had called on Fordo to establish a study and progression facility and limit centrifuges to non-nuclear uses.
Iran had in the past told the IAEA that it was preparing to enrich uranium with a new cascade of 166 complex IR-6 centrifuges at its Fordo underground facility. But he hadn’t revealed the point at which the trick would be rewarding.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U. N. ‘s nuclear watchdog, told The Associated Press it verified Saturday that Iran was a configuration that allowed it to transfer faster and smoothly between enrichment levels.
In a report to member states, Director-General Rafael Grossi described a “modified subtitle” formula, which he said allowed Iran to inject fuel enriched up to five purities into a cascade of 166 IR-6 centrifuges for the purpose of generating uranium enriched up to 20 purity.
Iran has commented on the IAEA’s latest discovery.
Nuclear talks have stalled for months. The special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, described the latest of the negotiations in Qatar as “more than a wasted opportunity. “
The IAEA reported last month that Iran possessed 43 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, a step toward 90 percent. Nonproliferation experts warn that there is enough fissile material for a single nuclear weapon if Iran decides to follow it.
However, Iran would still want to design a bomb and delivery formula for it, a months-long project.
Iran insists its program has nonviolent purposes, with UN experts and Western intelligence agencies claiming Iran had an organized military nuclear program until 2003.
Tehran’s growing nuclear paints have sounded the alarm, with a decline in transparency. Last month, Iran shut down more than two dozen IAEA surveillance cameras at various nuclear-related sites across the country.
Former President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed crushing sanctions on Tehran, triggering a series of tense incidents across the Middle East. through the deal.
Iran’s adversary, Israel, has long opposed the nuclear deal, saying it was delaying rather than halting Iran’s nuclear progress and claiming that sanctions relief had strengthened Tehran’s militias in the region.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid called on the UN to reimpose multilateral sanctions on Iran, an offer that met with strong opposition when pushed by the Trump administration.
“The reaction of the foreign network will have to be decisive: go back to the UN Security Council and ignite the mechanism of sanctions on all powers,” Lapid, who serves as interim chief, told his cabinet. “Israel, for its part, maintains complete freedom of action, diplomatic and operational, in this fight opposed to Iran’s nuclear program. “
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Associated Press editors Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to the report.