ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iran will begin enriching uranium at its Fordow nuclear facility on Wednesday in a fourth step back from the 2015 nuclear deal - a move that could jeopardize the little support Iran still enjoys among European powers.
President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that he will relay orders for the injection of gas into centrifuges at Fordow, an underground facility close to the central Iranian city of Qom.
“According to the agreement, we have 1000 centrifuges in Fordow which were supposed to be spinning but without feeding them gas. However, we will start feeding them gas from tomorrow,” Rouhani said on Tuesday.
He insisted Tehran’s actions are under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear watchdog supervising the 2015 nuclear deal. Like the previous three steps back Iran has taken from the deal, the decision to inject gas at Fordow is reversible, Rouhani added.
As part of the 2015 nuclear deal, otherwise known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA), Iran agreed to freeze all enrichment activity at Fordow.
“Iran will not conduct any uranium enrichment or any uranium enrichment related R&D [research and development] and will have no nuclear material at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) for 15 years,” according to the deal.
Instead, Iran was to “convert the Fordow facility into a nuclear, physics and technology centre. … All other centrifuges and enrichment-related infrastructure will be removed and stored under IAEA continuous monitoring.”
The IAEA has yet to comment on Rouhani’s announcement.
According to the deal, uranium enrichment at permitted levels can only take place at the central Iranian Natanz facility. Iran announced a tenfold increase in its enriched uranium production at the facility on Monday.
Feeding uranium gas into spinning centrifuges allows for the separation of a highly radioactive form of uranium, U-235. This type of uranium can be split to produce power in nuclear reactors.
U-235 makes up less than 1 percent of natural uranium gas. It must make up 3-5 percent for the uranium gas to be of commercial use for nuclear power. Fuel for a nuclear weapon would require a 85-90 percent concentration of U-235.
Iran currently produces uranium enriched at 4.5 percent U-235, in breach of the 3.67 percent limit set by the JCPOA.
The US began imposing economic sanctions on Iran as part of a campaign of ‘maximum pressure’ six months after Iran’s withdrawal from the JCPOA in May 2018.
Initially targeting the country’s petrochemical industry, the sanctions have expanded to include the country’s most politically powerful – including the nine top Rouhani aides hit yesterday.
Rouhani said sanctions intended to force surrender will not succeed. Instead, he said, Iran seeks negotiation.
“We spent eight years defending the country during the Sacred Defense [during the Iraq-Iran War] and put up resistance in the battlefield, we have spent 31 years [when the war ended]negotiating for it and we must carry on negotiating,” he said on Tuesday.
The potential for resumed negotiation as signaled by Rouhani contradicts comments made by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that dismissed the possibility of future nuclear deal discussions.
“I want you youth to pay attention to the fact that the most important response that the Islamic Republic has given to the US in the face of its plots, is that it has shut the door to another political infiltration by the US…When it is said that we should not negotiate, this is one of the requirements and tools for preventing the US from entering the country,” Khamenei said on November 3.
“This ban on negotiations is not merely an emotional course of action. There is a solid logic behind it as it shuts the door to its infiltration, it shows the power and magnificence of the Islamic Republic to the world and it makes the empty greatness of the other side visible to the whole world because it does not sit at the negotiating table with them.”
Though Iran has become accustomed to US sanctions, their “unjust” escalation is now being internationally recognised, Rouhani said.
“The difference now is that the whole world says that these sanctions are unjust … but in the past when the enemy did such a thing no one would say that the sanctions are unjust and would say the sanctions are according to the UN resolution.”
A report from Human Rights Watch released late October warned of the dire impact US sanctions have had on Iranian healthcare.
“Current economic sanctions, despite the humanitarian exemptions, are causing unnecessary suffering to Iranian citizens afflicted with a range of diseases and medical conditions. Some of the worst-affected are Iranians with rare diseases and/or conditions that require specialized treatment who are unable to acquire previously available medicines or supplies,” according to the report.
Led by France, European powers have concertedly pushed for Iran to resume nuclear deal negotiation with Washington. A plan drawn up by France, Britain and Germany to save the deal met Rouhani’s approval in early October.
However, the European Union warned Monday that its continued support for the deal depended on Tehran fulfilling its commitments.
"We have continued to urge Iran to reverse such steps without delay and to refrain from other measures that would undermine the nuclear deal," Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini told reporters in Brussels.
