Iran launched a new batch of advanced centrifuges to accelerate uranium enrichment, further reducing compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal following the withdrawal of its arch-foe the United States.
As well as operating twice as many advanced centrifuges banned by the 2015 accord, Tehran is working on a prototype that is 50 times faster than those allowed by the deal, Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, said on Monday.
The new IR-6 machines can refine uranium 10 times faster, said Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
By starting up these advanced centrifuges, Iran further cuts into the one year that experts estimate Tehran would need to have enough material for building a nuclear weapon – if it chose to pursue one.
Daryl Kimball, director of the US-based Arms Control Association, told Al Jazeera that though Iran was taking worrisome steps, these were quickly reversible if there were to be some diplomatic arrangement to bring both sides back into compliance.
“Our interpretation is that Iran is trying to increase the pressure on Britain, France and Germany in particular to find some arrangement that will allow them to sell the oil they were buying when Iran was not under sanctions.”
Salehi made the announcement on state TV as demonstrators gathered in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran and footage was aired from cities across the country that revived decades-old cries of “Death to America.” Others at protests burned U.S. flag replicas and waved signs mocking the U.S.
Speaking in front of the former embassy, known locally as the “U.S. Den of Espionage,” Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, the commander of the Iranian army, referred to the U.S. as a “scorpion” and said the “era of imposing pressure with zero expense” was finished.
“Thanks to God, today the revolution’s seedlings have evolved into a fruitful and huge tree that its shadow has covered the entire” Middle East, he said.
