Iran takes new step away from nuclear deal by activating sensitive enrichment facility
By Erin Cunningham
November 5, 2019
ISTANBUL -- Iran will begin injecting gas into centrifuges at its Fordow fuel enrichment facility in its latest step away from the 2015 nuclear accord it struck with world powers, President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday.
Speaking live on state television, Rouhani said that he would instruct Iran's Atomic Energy Organization to begin the new measures on Wednesday, feeding gas to more than 1,000 centrifuges installed at the plant.
Under the nuclear agreement, Iran is allowed to maintain 1,044 empty IR-1 centrifuges at Fordow and is banned from enriching uranium or even bringing uranium to the site for 15 years from the start of the accord.
"We know how sensitive they are to the Fordow facility," Rouhani said in his address, referring to Western powers that negotiated the deal.
The site was revealed as a secret enrichment facility by Britain, France and the United States in 2009. It was constructed deep inside a mountain near the Iranian city of Qom.
"When they begin living up to their commitments [under the agreement], then we will stop feeding gas to the centrifuges," Rouhani said. He added that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, would be allowed to monitor the new activities.
The measures marked the fourth step Iran has taken this year to reduce its nuclear obligations under the pact, which curbed Iran's atomic energy program in exchange for widespread sanctions relief. The landmark accord was negotiated between Iran and world powers, including the United States under President Barack Obama.
President Trump, however, withdrew the United States from the agreement last year, reimposing a near-total trade embargo on the Iranian economy. The economic restrictions are part of what the administration has called a "maximum pressure campaign" against Iran to force it to renegotiate restraints on its nuclear activities, as well as its support for proxy forces in the region and ballistic missile construction.
Instead, Iran in recent months has exceeded caps on the size and purity of its enriched uranium stockpile and doubled the number of its advanced centrifuges, in what Iranian officials say is a bid to persuade European nations to offset the effects of U.S. sanctions.
Iran has given Europe a series of 60-day deadlines to reset the terms of the deal, including facilitating the sale of Iranian oil, which is blocked under the U.S. embargo.
"We should be able to sell our oil, we should be able to make banking transactions, and all sanctions on other sectors should be lifted," Rouhani said Tuesday. "Then we will return to our previous commitments."
Despite the recent moves, Iran continues to enrich uranium far below the 90 percent level needed to produce a nuclear weapon, according to the IAEA. In its latest report in September, the agency said Iran was enriching uranium at 4.5 percent, sightly above the 3.67 percent cap established under the nuclear agreement.
In June, the agency reported that Iran had not conducted any uranium or related research at the Fordow plant.
"There has not been any nuclear material at the plant," the report said.