TEHERAN – An “accident” occurred this morning at the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, in central Iran, “without causing any injuries or pollution”. This was reported by the Fars agency, citing the spokesman for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (Oiea), Behrouz Kamalvandi. This is the latest in a series of mysterious incidents in one of the most protected sites in Tehran that occurred in the aftermath of the resumption of negotiations on the nuclear agreement between Tehran and the signatory countries of the 2015 nuclear agreement (Jcpoa). The talks are the first contact between Iran and the United States since 2018, when Donald Trump came out of the agreement negotiated at the time by Barack Obama. Iranians and Americans do not sit at the same table, but speak through the intermediaries of Europeans.
After a few hours of confusion, the Iranians spoke of “a terrorist action” pointing the finger at Israel, already accused of an attack on an advanced centrifuge development and assembly plant in Natanz in July 2020. Natanz is a 100 thousand square meters built eight meters underground in central Iran. Iran announced yesterday that it has started the IR-6 and IR-5 advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium faster, in a new breach of commitments made with the JCPO. Once operational, the IR-9 centrifuge is expected to be 50 times faster than the first, the IR-1, the only one that the 2015 agreement allows for use.
Nuclear, Iran’s challenge: new centrifuges launched for uranium enrichment
The Vienna talks are expected to resume next week. Moreover, today the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, is in Israel for talks with the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Minister of Defense Benny Gantz.
Iran, US ready to lift sanctions to bring Trump’s abandoned nuclear deal back to life
by Gabriella Colarusso
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