The United Nations nuclear surveillance agency on Monday accused the government of Iran of accelerating the pace with which it violates the restrictions imposed by the 2015 nuclear agreement signed between the United States, Iran and several European countries.
Tehran has shown an increasing willingness to ignore the Obama-era deal afterPresident Trump
Donald TrumpUS, South Korea agrees on cost sharing for Graham troops: Trump can make the GOP bigger, stronger or “could destroy it”. took the U.S. out of it in 2018.
A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released to member states and obtained by Reuters found that Iran’s Natanz facility began operating a third set of IR-2m centrifuges, used to enrich uranium for the country’s nuclear plants .
The use of IR-2m centrifuges is not permitted by the 2015 agreement, although the purity of the enriched uranium produced by the centrifuges remains much less than that required for arms production, according to Reuters.
“On March 7, 2021, the Agency verified in the FEP that: Iran started to feed natural UF6 in the third cascade of 174 IR-2m centrifuges”, says the IAEA report.
“The fourth cascade of 174 IR-2m centrifuges has been installed, but has not yet been fed with natural UF6; the installation of a fifth cascade of IR-2m centrifuges was in progress; and the installation of a sixth cascade of IR-2m centrifuges had not yet started ”, he continued.
The Iranian government has pressured the Biden government to return to the 2015 agreement since the president took office in January. The White House has resisted those calls so far, saying it is up to Tehran to return to compliance, although it refuses to reverse the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration after it came out of the deal.
The Hill contacted the State Department to comment on the latest findings from the IAEA.
Early last month, Iran’s foreign minister assigned responsibility for the nuclear deal back on track with the United States.
“It was the United States that abandoned the agreement,” said Javad Zarif on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”, adding: “It was the United States that violated the agreement. It was the United States that punished any country that maintained respect and obedience to the agreement. Therefore, it is up to the United States to return to the business, to implement its obligations ”.