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Iran has officially started
injecting gas into advanced
IR-6 centrifuges
4
November, 2019
Addressing
reporters following the Monday ceremony, Salehi said, “Today, we
will have three symbolic inaugurations, one of which is making
operational a 30-machine cascade of IR-6 centrifuges,” which are
used to enrich uranium.
Noting
that Iran had already launched a 20-machine cascade on April 9,
Salehi added, “At the present time, we have 60 IR-6 centrifuge
machines, every one of which has a capacity of 10 SWU (separative
work units) that increased the existing [uranium enrichment] capacity
by a total capacity of 600 SWU.”
“This
is a place for research and development. The number of centrifuges
installed at this place in a matter of two months is 15
new-generation centrifuges, which is a great achievement… Our
colleagues at the AEOI have been always active and if they had slowed
down their activities, we would not have been able to add 2,600 SWU
[of enrichment capacity] to the capacity that we already had,"
the Iranian nuclear chief added.
He
noted that Iran started manufacturing IR-6 machines in 2009 and
unveiled the first sample a year later, saying, “About nine years
have passed since the first machine of this type was unveiled and we
worked for five years on this machine before the conclusion of the
JCPOA (the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Compreh
US
President Donald Trump is a stern critic of the nuclear accord, which
was clinched by Iran and the five permanent members of the UN
Security Council plus Germany in 2015. Under the agreement,
nuclear-related sanctions against Iran were lifted in exchange for
curbs on Tehran's nuclear program.
Trump
unilaterally withdrew the US from the deal in May 2018 and unleashed
the "toughest ever" sanctions against the Islamic Republic
in defiance of global criticism in a bid to strangle the Iranian oil
trade.
In
response to the White House, Tehran has so far rowed back on its
nuclear commitments three times in compliance with Articles 26 and 36
of the JCPOA, stressing that its retaliatory measures will be
reversible as soon as Europe finds practical ways to shield the
mutual trade from the US sanctions.
Elsewhere
in his remarks, the AEOI head said, “At present, our [enrichment]
capacity stands at 8,600 SWU and our uranium production has increased
from about 450 grams before we took the third step [to reduce our
commitments under the JCPOA] to more than 5,000 grams per day.”
Salehi
said before the conclusion of the JCPOA, Iran's operational capacity
stood at 11,000 SWU, noting, “After taking the third step, it took
us only two months to reach the capacity of 8,600 SWU.”
He
added that Iran currently possesses about 500 kg of enriched uranium,
which is not limited to 4.2-percent enriched uranium and “we are
currently adding 5,000 grams to it per day.”
In
June 2018, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali
Khamenei ordered the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to make
preparations for enrichment of uranium up to a level of 190,000SWU
without any delay.
Ayatollah
Khamenei orders Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to get ready to
enrich uranium to a level of 190,000SWU without delay.
“It
seems from what they say that some European governments expect the
Iranian nation to both put up with sanctions and give up its nuclear
activities and continue to observe limitations [on its nuclear
program]. I tell those governments that this bad dream will never
come true,” the Leader said.
The
European Union said on Monday it will remain committed to the nuclear
deal as long as Iran fulfills its commitments, urging Tehran to
reverse the steps it has taken.
Maja
Kocijancic, spokesperson for the European Commission, said that the
28-nation bloc "took note" of Iran's announcement about
increasing its enriched uranium production but would wait for
confirmation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) before
responding.
"We
have continued to urge Iran to reverse such steps without delay and
to refrain from other measures that would undermine the nuclear
deal," Kocijancic told reporters in Brussels, saying the EU
"remained committed" to the nuclear deal.
"But
we have also been consistent in saying that our commitment to the
nuclear deal depends on full compliance by Iran," she added.
"We
have been consistently expressing our concerns since we believe that
the JCPOA should be preserved, it's a matter of our security, not
just the region or Europe but globally," she pointed out.
Germany
also reacted to Iran's announcement on Monday, with the country's
foreign minister urging Tehran to return to the original accord.
"Iran
has built very advanced centrifuges, which do not comply with the
agreement," Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was quoted by Reuters as
telling a news conference in response to a question about the
announcement.
"They
have announced in early September that they would not comply with the
nuclear accord and we think this is unacceptable," he added.
Iranian military warns
countries hosting US bases:
"You will be targeted in the
event of American
aggression"
3
November, 2019
Iran
has the ability and will to target any and all territories sheltering
the US or its allies in the region in the event of aggression against
Tehran, Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi has
warned.
“Any
place and any territorial point sheltering the interests of the
United States and its allies would be threatened (in case of any war)
and the Islamic Republic has proved that it has the capability to do
so,” the spokesman for the armed forces general staff said,
speaking to Fars News Agency.
“Even
if a country does not directly participate in any possible war but
its territories host the enemy, we consider that country as a hostile
territory and will treat it as an aggressor,” Shekarchi added.
Emphasizing
that Iran would never be the instigator of a war of aggression, the
spokesman also stressed that “if an aggressor commits a strategic
mistake” and starts a war, “that aggression will be confronted
with the strongest and most crushing response over a geographic
expanse beyond what the ill-wishers of the Islamic Republic could
imagine.”
Shekarchi
added that the ineffectiveness of US military equipment was recently
proven when all the advanced US radar and air defense systems “failed
their test in a shameful manner” when Yemen’s Houthi militia
launched attacks on Saudi Aramco facilities in September. At that
time, the spokesman said, the whole world “realized the weakness
and humiliation [of Western countries’ equipment] in this field.”
This
was the second time Brig. Gen. Shekarchi has warned the US about the
dangers of a conflict with Iran. In June, amid regional fears about
how the US might respond to the destruction of a $220 million drone
by Iranian air defenses in the Strait of Hormuz, the spokesman warned
that firing even “one bullet” at Iran would cause the region to
“be set on fire” in the war that followed.
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