By Darryl Coote
Dec. 19, 2019 at 5:21 AM
Dec. 19 (UPI) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country is developing advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges in apparent violation of a landmark multination nuclear deal.
During a meeting with Iranian expatriates while in Malaysia for the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019, Rouhani touted the nuclear achievements of Iran, revealing its new IR-6 centrifuges were operational and that it was testing an IR-9 model, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
The more advanced and taller centrifuges can shorten the time to enrich uranium. According to the think tank The Washington Institute, the IR-2 is able to produce between three and five times as much enriched uranium as an IR-1.
Iran has increased its nuclear program since 2018 when U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that aimed to restrict the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear industry by, among other conditions, limiting its ability to enrich uranium, which can be used for reactors and weapons.
Rouhani told the Iranian expatriates that Iran is open to negotiations and building closer ties with the International community and that “everybody is aware of the fact that U.S. withdrawal has not benefited anybody, even the U.S. and its friends.”
“Americans will have to come back from their wrong path, and Iran will make them do so by our resistance and perseverance,” he said.
Last month, Iran said it had further separated itself for JCPOA by starting the process to enrich uranium at its Fordow nuclear facility, which was supposed to be turned into a nuclear physics research lab under the deal.
In September, the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had been installing advanced centrifuges but none of them were yet operational.
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