Dubai, Nov 29: Iran will begin enriching uranium with thousands of advanced centrifuges at its two main nuclear facilities at Fordo and Natanz, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said on Friday, further raising tensions over Tehran’s programme as it enriches at near weapons-grade levels.
The notice from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) only mentioned Iran enriching uranium with new centrifuges to 5 per cent purity, far lower than the 60 per cent it currently does – likely signalling that it still wants to negotiate with the West and the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
However, it remains unclear how Trump will approach Iran once he enters office, particularly as it continues to threaten to attack Israel amid its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and just after a ceasefire started in its campaign in Lebanon.
Trump withdrew America from the accord in 2018, setting in motion a series of attacks and incidents across the wider Mideast.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment over the IAEA’s report.
Tehran had threatened to rapidly advance its programme after the Board of Governors at the IAEA condemned Iran at a meeting in November for failing to cooperate fully with the agency.
In a statement, the International Atomic Energy Agency outlined the plans Iran informed it of, which include feeding uranium into some 45 cascades of its advanced IR-2M, IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges.
Cascades are a group of centrifuges that spin uranium gas together to more quickly enrich the uranium. Each of these advanced classes of centrifuges enrich uranium faster than Iran’s baseline IR-1 centrifuges, which have been the workhorse of the country’s atomic programme. (AP)
