TEHRAN, April 16. /TASS/. Iran last night produced nine grams 60% purity uranium, Vice-President Ali Akbar Salehi, chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said on Friday.

"On Friday, we achieved 60%-enrichment of uranium. Currently we have nine grams [of 60% purity uranium] at our disposal," the news agency ISNA quotes Salehi as saying.

Earlier on Friday, Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the Iranian authorities had managed to obtain the first batch of uranium enriched to 60%.

On Tuesday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran was starting the enrichment of uranium to 60% as of Wednesday. President Hassan Rouhani said the measure was in retaliation for Israel’s act of sabotage at the nuclear facility in Natanz on April 11. He promised that the enrichment would be carried out for peaceful purposes and under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.