Iran announced Friday it was activating new advanced centrifuges \u2013 which enrich uranium for the country\u2019s nuclear program \u2013 after the United Nations\u2019 nuclear watchdog criticized the country for not cooperating with the agency. <\/p>\n
Iran will activate \u201ca noticeable number of new and advanced centrifuges of different types,\u201d state news agency IRNA reported, citing a joint statement from Iran\u2019s foreign ministry and its Atomic Energy Organization. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe steps are being taken to protect the country\u2019s interests and further develop the peaceful nuclear energy,\u201d in line with national needs and within Iran\u2019s rights, the statement said according to IRNA. <\/p>\n
Injecting gas into centrifuges is part of the process to enrich uranium, which could ultimately be used to develop a nuclear weapon, though Iran has repeatedly denied it has any ambitions of building a bomb. <\/p>\n
The move was in response to the UN\u2019s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose board passed a resolution Thursday ordering Iran to urgently improve its cooperation with the agency, according to Reuters. The IAEA and Iran have long tussled over various issues, including traces of uranium found at locations that have not been declared nuclear sites. <\/p>\n
On Thursday, the IAEA board also asked the agency to compile an assessment of whether Iran had possible undeclared nuclear material, and of its cooperation with the organization. <\/p>\n
Iran decried the resolution, claiming in the joint statement that it was politically motivated, IRNA reported. The statement added that Iran would continue its technical and safeguards cooperation with the IAEA as previously agreed. <\/p>\n
In a statement Thursday, Iran\u2019s foreign ministry claimed the resolution was made \u201cunder pressure and insistence from three European countries and the US,\u201d and warned it could trigger \u201can appropriate response from Iran.\u201d <\/p>\n
Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. But IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi has previously warned that Tehran has enough uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels to make \u201cseveral\u201d nuclear bombs if it chose to do so. <\/p>\n
He has acknowledged the UN agency cannot guarantee that none of Iran\u2019s centrifuges may have been peeled away for clandestine enrichment. <\/p>\n
Israel Defense Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar also praised the IAEA\u2019s resolution, writing on X that \u201cIran\u2019s nuclear race must be stopped.\u201d The resolution \u201cis a significant part of the diplomatic effort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,\u201d Sa\u2019ar wrote. <\/p>\n
Under the terms of the nuclear deal struck in 2015, Iran was limited to operating around 5,000 older-model centrifuges, and the nation was allowed to use advance centrifuges for research purposes only. <\/p>\n
But Tehran gradually scaled back its commitments to the nuclear deal after then-President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact in 2018 and reimposed economic sanctions on Iran, which crippled its economy. By 2019, Iran was launching new centrifuges in a major break from the deal. <\/p>\n
Earlier this year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Iran\u2019s breakout time \u2013 the amount of time needed to produce enough weapons grade material for a nuclear weapon \u2013 \u201cis now probably one or two weeks,\u201d the shortest breakout time that US officials have ever referenced. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran announced Friday it was activating new advanced centrifuges \u2013 which enrich uranium for the country\u2019s nuclear program \u2013 after the United Nations\u2019 nuclear watchdog criticized the country for not cooperating with the agency. Iran will activate \u201ca noticeable number of new and advanced centrifuges of different types,\u201d state news agency IRNA reported, citing a <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}