Iran says it is activating new centrifuges after being condemned by UN nuclear watchdog
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1Iran announced Friday it was activating new advanced centrifuges – which enrich uranium for the country’s nuclear program – after the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog criticized the country for not cooperating with the agency.
2Iran will activate “a noticeable number of new and advanced centrifuges of different types,” state news agency IRNA reported, citing a joint statement from Iran’s foreign ministry and its Atomic Energy Organization.
3“The steps are being taken to protect the country’s interests and further develop the peaceful nuclear energy,” in line with national needs and within Iran’s rights, the statement said according to IRNA.
4Injecting gas into centrifuges is part of the process to enrich uranium, which could ultimately be used to develop a nuclear weapon, though Iran has repeatedly denied it has any ambitions of building a bomb.
5The move was in response to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose board passed a resolution Thursday ordering Iran to urgently improve its cooperation with the agency, according to Reuters. 6The IAEA and Iran have long tussled over various issues, including traces of uranium found at locations that have not been declared nuclear sites.
7On Thursday, the IAEA board also asked the agency to compile an assessment of whether Iran had possible undeclared nuclear material, and of its cooperation with the organization.
8Iran decried the resolution, claiming in the joint statement that it was politically motivated, IRNA reported. 9The statement added that Iran would continue its technical and safeguards cooperation with the IAEA as previously agreed.
10In a statement Thursday, Iran’s foreign ministry claimed the resolution was made “under pressure and insistence from three European countries and the US,” and warned it could trigger “an appropriate response from Iran.”
11Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. 12But IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi has previously warned that Tehran has enough uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels to make “several” nuclear bombs if it chose to do so.
13He has acknowledged the UN agency cannot guarantee that none of Iran’s centrifuges may have been peeled away for clandestine enrichment.
14Israel Defense Minister Gideon Sa’ar also praised the IAEA’s resolution, writing on X that “Iran’s nuclear race must be stopped.” 15The resolution “is a significant part of the diplomatic effort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” Sa’ar wrote.
16Under the terms of the nuclear deal struck in 2015, Iran was limited to operating around 5,000 older-model centrifuges, and the nation was allowed to use advance centrifuges for research purposes only.
17But Tehran gradually scaled back its commitments to the nuclear deal after then-President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact in 2018 and reimposed economic sanctions on Iran, which crippled its economy. 18By 2019, Iran was launching new centrifuges in a major break from the deal.
19Earlier this year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Iran’s breakout time – the amount of time needed to produce enough weapons grade material for a nuclear weapon – “is now probably one or two weeks,” the shortest breakout time that US officials have ever referenced.
from CNN