Iranian president announces significant break from nuclear deal

Iran's president announced on Tuesday that Tehran will begin injecting uranium gas into 1,044 centrifuges, the latest step away from its nuclear deal with world powers since U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord over a year ago.

President Hassan Rouhani's announcement means that Iran's Fordo nuclear facility, publicly revealed only 10 years ago, again will become an active atomic site rather than a research facility as envisioned by the landmark 2015 accord.

The announcement represents a significant development as Fordo's 1,044 centrifuges previously spun empty for testing purposes under the deal. It also increases pressure on European nations that remain in the accord to offer Iran a way to sell its crude oil abroad.

Rouhani threatened to further pull Iran out of the deal in early January 2020, which could mean curtailing international surveillance of its program or pushing enrichment close to weapons-grade levels.

"We are aware of their sensitiveness toward the Fordo facility and those centrifuges," Rouhani said in a live televised address. "At the same time, we cannot tolerate unilateral fulfilment of our commitments and no commitment from their side"

Rouhani's remarks came a day after Tehran's nuclear program chief said the country had doubled the number of advanced IR-6 centrifuges in operation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency the United Nations' nuclear watchdog monitoring Iran's compliance with the deal declined to comment on Rouhani's announcement. European Union spokesperson Maja Kocijancic described the bloc as "concerned" by Iran's decision.

The White House on Monday sanctioned members of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's inner circle as part of its maximum pressure campaign against Tehran.

Watch as Iran unveils its new centrifuges:

Iran unveils new batch of advanced centrifuges

5 years ago

Duration 1:00

Iran's move further reduces its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal following the withdrawal of the United States in 2018.

Experts described Iran's announcement as a major tear to the unraveling deal.

"They're getting closer and closer to muscle. They aren't cutting fat right now," said Richard Nephew, a scholar at Columbia University who worked on the deal while at the State Department.

Fordo sits some 25 kilometres northeast of Qom, a Shia holy city and the site of a former ammunition dump. Shielded by the mountains, the facility also is ringed by anti-aircraft guns and other fortifications. It is about the size of a football field, large enough to house 3,000 centrifuges, but small and hardened enough to lead U.S. officials to suspect it had a military purpose.

The centrifuges at Fordo are IR-1s, Iran's first-generation centrifuge. The nuclear deal allowed those at Fordo to spin without uranium gas, while allowing up to 5,060 at its Natanz facility to enrich uranium.

A centrifuge enriches uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas. An IR-6 centrifuge can produce enriched uranium 10 times faster than an IR-1, Iranian officials say.

However, Rouhani stressed the steps taken so far, including going beyond the deal's enrichment and stockpile limitations, could be reversed if Europe offers a way for it to avoid U.S. sanctions choking off its crude oil sales abroad. However, a trade mechanism has yet to take hold and French-proposed $15 billion US line of credit has not emerged.

"We should be able to sell our oil," Rouhani said. "We should be able to bring our money" into the country.

Tense summer of mysterious attacks

The 2015 nuclear deal, which saw Iran limit its enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, called for Fordo to become "a nuclear, physics and technology centre."

The U.S. State Department announced days ago that it would renew a waiver allowing Russia's state-run Rosatom nuclear company to continue its conversion work at the site.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the joint Russian-Iranian project at Fordo would not be affected by Tehran's latest move.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Moscow wants the nuclear deal to survive though it understood Iran's anger over the "unprecedented and illegitimate sanctions against" it.

Iranian scientists also are working on a prototype called the IR-9, which works 50-times faster than the IR-1, Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akhbar Salehi said Monday.

As of now, Iran is enriching uranium up to 4.5 per cent, in violation of the accord's limit of 3.67 per cent. Enriched uranium at the 3.67 per centlevel is enough for peaceful pursuits but is far below weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent. At the 4.5 per centlevel, it is enough to help power Iran's Bushehr reactor, the country's only nuclear power plant. Prior to the atomic deal, Iran only reached up to 20 per cent.

Tehran has gone from producing some 450 grams of low-enriched uranium a day to fivekilograms, Salehi said. Iran now holds over 500 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, Salehi said. The deal had limited Iran to 300 kilograms.

The collapse of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, coincided with a tense summer of mysterious attacks on oil tankers and Saudi oil facilities that the U.S. blamed on Iran. Tehran denied the allegation, though it did seize oil tankers and shoot down a U.S. military surveillance drone.