Experts say new centrifuges do not pose a major deterrent if Iran, the U.S. agrees on a way to reverse a nuclear deal.
Tehran, Iran – Iran says it has installed new and more advanced centrifuges at its two main nuclear sites, a development confirmed by the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), announced Tuesday that new bans of centrifuges have been installed at the Natanz and Fordow underground sites.
“Two waterfalls of 348 IR2m centrifuges with almost four times the IR1 capacity are now successfully run by UF6 in Natanz,” he wrote on Twitter referring to uranium hexafluoride used in uranium enrichment.
“The installation of two cascades of IR6 centrifuges has also begun in Fordow. More to come. “
Reuters news agency reported that the latest IAEA report to member states confirms Iran’s announcement.
Last week, parliament spokesman Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, when visiting Fordow, said Iran had extracted 17kg (37.5 pounds) of 20 per cent uranium-rich in less than month.
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Iran could be months, or even weeks, away from developing fine enough materials for a nuclear bomb if it continues on its current path .
Iran, meanwhile, has maintained its nuclear program for peaceful purposes.
Iran had already started enriching uranium using a browser of Natanz’s 174 IR2m devices.
The installation is the latest move by Iran to reduce its commitments under the Joint Integrated Action Plan (JCPOA), a 2015 nuclear treaty that it signed with world powers.
Former United States President Donald Trump abandoned the agreement unilaterally in 2018, imposing harsh sanctions on Iran. Iran gradually suspended its promises a year after the U.S. withdrew.
But after Iran’s chief nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in November 2020, his parliament passed a law calling for a further reduction of nuclear promises.
If the U.S. does not lift sanctions on Iran’s banking and oil departments by Feb. 21, President Hassan Rouhani’s government has a legal obligation to restrict the access of IAEA inspectors to their nuclear sites.
“I don’t believe the new centrifuges would have a major impact on the capacity or timing of a return to the nuclear deal,” said Abas Aslani, a senior researcher at the Tehran-based Center for Strategic Eastern Studies in Tehran.
“The issue of ordering and time and quality of return to commitments under the nuclear deal would take longer than the technical issues,” he told Al Jazeera.
Joe Biden ‘s administration has promised to reinstate the agreement, but disagreements over who must return to commitments first have created an imbalance.
According to Trita Parsi, executive vice president for the Quincy Institute for a Responsible State in Washington, Iran is trying to “raise the cost of the status quo” because he fears Biden may be walking slowly. US back to nuclear deal.
“While it is a problem for the U.S. in the short term, the Iranian measure does not necessarily create a long-term problem as the waterfalls can be easily dismantled,” he said. Al Jazeera.