Iran kick starts open breach of nuke deal

Agencies | Tehran

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Sending the indirect nuke talks into a tailspin, Iran yesterday launched several advanced centrifuges capable of enriching Uranium quickly, further raising concerns about its intention of returning to the troubled nuclear deal.

The launch also creates a further breach of the 2015 nuclear deal, days after talks on rescuing it got underway.

The parties are to reconvene next week in Vienna to resume talks that started this week.

However, the launch of the advanced centrifuges by President Hassan Rouhani at the underground Natanz nuclear plant to mark National Nuclear Technology Day had put additional pressure on the talks.

A state television broadcast showed no images of the cascades but a video link with engineers at the plant.

The live video link showed Rouhani ordering the injection of uranium gas into 164 IR-6 centrifuges, 30 IR-5 centrifuges, and mechanical tests on IR-9 machines with the capacity of 50 early IR-1 machines - a likely new breach of the nuclear deal.

The ceremony unveiled 133 advances over the past year in the country’s nuclear industry in medicine, power, agriculture and energy, state television said.

The United States had earlier confirmed that it would not lift sanctions on Iran as demanded by Tehran.

A senior State Department official said Friday that it remained to be seen if Iran was serious about reaching a new nuclear deal.

The talks in Vienna, in which European Union officials are shuttling between the remaining parties to the deal and the United States, aim to restore the bargain at the core of the agreement - restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities, in exchange for the lifting of the US and other international sanctions.