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Iran's nuclear program

Iran to start five percent uranium enrichment at Fordow facility on November 6

Iran was supposed to repurpose the Fordow site to make sure that it cannot be used for military purposes

Head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi Sergei Karpov/TASS

Head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi

© Sergei Karpov/TASS

TEHRAN, November 5. /TASS/. Iran will start five percent uranium enrichment at the Fordow facility on November 6, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi said on Tuesday.

"We will begin enriching uranium to five percent at the Fordow facility tomorrow," he said, as cited by the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA).

Read also

Tehran forwards letter to IAEA announcing gas injection into centrifuges in Iran’s Fordow

According to Salehi, before making a nuclear deal, Iran used to enrich uranium to 20% in Fordow. "Today, we have enough 20% enriched uranium," he added.

Salehi also pointed out that gas would be injected into uranium enrichment centrifuges in the presence of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that Tehran would take the next step to reduce its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) by activating centrifuges at the Fordow uranium enrichment plant on Wednesday.

Iran nuclear issue

In 2015, Iran and six major powers (five member states of the United Nations Security Council — Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and China — and Germany) agreed on the final Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which particularly stipulated the removal of sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program.

On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal. Washington re-imposed previous sanctions on Iran and introduced new ones.

On May 8, 2019, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Tehran was reducing its commitments under the JCPOA. He pointed out that the other signatories had two months to return to compliance. The deadline expired on July 7. On July 8, Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Behrouz Kamalvandi said that Tehran had exceeded the uranium enrichment level of 3.67%. Iran pledged that it would continue to reduce commitments every 60 days unless other participants restored compliance.

Under the JCPOA, Iran was supposed to repurpose the Fordow site to make sure that it cannot be used for military purposes.

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