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Iran's nuclear program

Iran announces launch of uranium enrichment at its Fordow facility

"All steps are being carried out under the supervision of IAEA," Iran said

© AP Photo/Iranian President's Office, File

TEHRAN, November 6. /TASS/. Iran has resumed uranium enrichment at its Fordow facility, the Islamic Republic’s Atomic Energy Organization said on its website on Thursday.

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

"Enrichment and production of uranium resumed at Fordow," the organization said in a statement, posted on its official website.

It also said that "all steps are being carried out under the supervision of IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]."

On November 5, 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. In accordance with the 2015 JCPOA, Iran had to modernize the Fordow plant under international observers’ supervision. The envisioned modernization was supposed to make this facility impossible to be used for military purposes.

On November 6, the ISNA agency informed that Iran began to pump gas to the centrifuges at Fordow, which de-facto means the fourth stage of Tehran’s reduction of obligations under the JCPOA. The IAEA informed that its inspectors are currently in Iran monitoring the situation at Fordow.

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 reintroduced previous sanctions on Iran and imposed 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 pointed out that it would continue to reduce commitments every 60 days unless other participants restored compliance.

On September 6, Iran announced the third step to scale down commitments under the nuclear deal, waiving restrictions on nuclear research. Tehran explained the move by saying that the European JCPOA signatories had failed to fully comply with their obligations.

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