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Fordow nuclear facility to be back to full operation soon — Iranian president

According to ISNA, Tehran started injecting gas into centrifuges at the Fordow facility in the presence of International Atomic Energy Agency experts

MOSCOW, November 6. /TASS/. The Fordow nuclear facility will soon be back to full operation, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Twitter on Wednesday.

"Iran’s fourth step in reducing its commitments under the JCPOA by injecting gas to 1044 centrifuges begins today. Thanks to US policy and its allies, Fordow will soon be back to full operation," the tweet reads.

According to the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), Tehran started injecting gas into centrifuges at the Fordow facility in the presence of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts. Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) was delivered from the Natanz nuclear site.

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 reported 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.