TEHRAN, November 6. /TASS/. Tehran plans to reach the 4.5% uranium enrichment level at the Fordow nuclear facility by November 9, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi said on Wednesday.
"We will stabilize the process and reach the 4.5% enrichment level by Saturday, IAEA experts will once again visit the site on that day," he said in a televised statement.
On November 6, Iran started to inject gas into centrifuges at the Fordow enrichment plant as part of the fourth step to reduce commitments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
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.