Parliament speaker: Iran ahead of schedule in producing 20% enriched uranium

Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf says Iran is ahead of schedule in enriching uranium to a purity level of 20 percent, almost a month after the country began to scale up its uranium enrichment program.

“I now give the glad tidings to the dear people of our country that regarding the 120 kg of 20-percent [uranium] enrichment per year, [Iranian] experts have been able to enrich 17 kg in less than a month. That means we are ahead of the schedule,” Qalibaf said on Thursday.

He made the remarks during a visit to the Fordow enrichment facility, which has been renamed after assassinated nuclear scientist Masoud Ali-Mohammadi. Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi and AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi accompanied Qalibaf during his visit.

Qalibaf said the installation of IR-2m centrifuges is also underway, with a number of centrifuges already installed and the rest being installed.

Iran and the P5+1 group – the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany – reached an agreement in 2015 on Tehran’s nuclear program. Under the deal, Iran agreed to limit some aspects of its nuclear activities in exchange for a sanctions relief.

However, former US President Donald Trump in May 2018 withdrew from the deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and reimposed sanctions, which had been lifted following conclusion of the deal. Iran, in response, started to reduce its commitments under the JCPOA in May 2019, citing the non-compliance of the P5+1 with the accord.

Tehran says no changes seen regarding JCPOA, warns to implement new nuclear law ‘word by word’

Iran says nothing new has happened regarding the 2015 nuclear pact it struck with six world powers.

Early in January, Tehran announced the beginning of the process to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity at Fordow in a tit-for-tat move against the US withdrawal and the European countries’ failure to protect Iran’s interests.

“The P5+1 failed to comply with its obligations within the framework of the JCPOA,” said Qalibaf. “Therefore, we have no duty whatsoever to fulfill the enshrined obligations.”

One year on, Europe still passive in face of US’s JCPOA withdrawal

Almost a year since the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, Iran is still criticizing European countries for their inaction in the face of the US unilateral measures.

He said Iran will honor its commitment once the P5+1 countries begin to honor theirs and lift sanctions that have targeted Iran’s oil and banking sectors.

The parliament speaker also said the country’s nuclear industry has taken a big step in lifting and nullifying the US sanctions.

“If the enemy does not want [our] country to have this technology, it is because they are upset about the existence of a strong and vigilant Iran,” he noted.

AEOI spokesman: Iran’s stockpile of 20% uranium reaches 17 kg

The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, for his part, announced that the country's stockpile of uranium enriched to 20 percent has reached 17 kilograms.

“A small part of Iran’s nuclear activities is based at the Fordow nuclear site, and the enrichment facility is nearly one-seventh of the Natanz nuclear site [in terms of size],” Kamalvandi said, according to IRNA.

The spokesman explained that according to a new law passed by the parliament, namely the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions, the AEOI will install 1,000 IR-2m centrifuges within a three-month period.

Early last month, Iranian parliamentarians overwhelmingly voted in favor of the action plan, which tasked the Iranian administration with suspending more commitments under the JCPOA until the other parties lift the sanctions.

The new law tasked the AEOI with producing at least 120 kg of 20-percent enriched uranium annually and starting the installation, gas injection, enrichment and storage of nuclear materials up to an appropriate enrichment degree within a period of three months using at least 1,000 IR-2m centrifuges.

First batch of Iran’s 20% enriched uranium products ready

Iran says it has produced its first UF6 product a few hours after restarting the enrichment of uranium up to a purity level of 20 percent at Fordow nuclear facility.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Kamalvandi said with the continuation of the current process, in the next eight years, two more nuclear power plants will become operational, each of which will save oil consumption between 12 to 14 million barrels on a daily basis.

He also said the enemies cannot impose their will on the Iranian people.

“If it was left to their choice, they would have eliminated every nut and bolt of Iran’s nuclear program,” said Kamalvandi, in remarks reminiscent of former US President Barack Obama’s comments back in 2013.

Iran envoy: Cooperation two-way street, not one-way boulevard

Also on Thursday, Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Kazem Gharibabadi, took to Twitter to warn that Iran’s cooperation with international bodies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in the area of nuclear energy cannot continue in a one-way manner.

“Cooperation and good-will are two-way street NOT a one-way boulevard,” Iran’s ambassador said.

Gharibabadi added that the new law passed by the Iranian parliament “has given also another chance to maintain the extremely unprecedented and impressive cooperation with the IAEA by removing the sanctions.”

Cooperation and good-will are two way street NOT a one way boulevard. The new law of the parliament has given also another chance to maintain the extremely unprecedented and impressive cooperation with the IAEA by removing the sanctions.

— Gharibabadi (@Gharibabadi) January 28, 2021

In a second tweet the same day, Gharibabadi hoped that international organizations would appreciate the opportunity for cooperation will Iran, which has been provided by the new law so that “the extra-ordinary cooperation is not back to ordinary.”

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