Senior MP Warns EU Not to Lose N. Deal with Iran

TEHRAN (defapress)- Chairman of the Iranian parliament's Nuclear Committee Mojtaba Zonnour warned the Europeans states to make their utmost efforts to keep the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran or face its consequences, including Iran's resumption of nuclear activities.

News ID: 72189

Date: 04 September 2018 - 17:47

"If the Europeans do not act upon their undertakings, we will proudly resume our nuclear works and certainly, they will grow upset and regretful," Zonnour told reporters in Tehran on Tuesday.

"Under such conditions, I believe that if the Europeans are wise, they should not lose the nuclear deal because we enjoy strong power to revive (the halted parts) and this resumption is possible to us," he added.

Zonnour said that at present Iran enjoys the capability to produce and assemble 62 centrifuge machines every day, stressing the country's ability to enhance uranium enrichment output to 190,000 SWUs (Separative Working Units) within two years.

In relevant remarks in July, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi underlined the country's capability to increase uranium enrichment output to 190,000 SWUs in 10 months.

Salehi told the state TV that the country has completed the construction of an advanced factory specializing in the manufacturing of centrifuge rotors in order to enhance its uranium enrichment capacity without violating the limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal.

He added that the project became operational in line with a recent decree by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei to develop a 190,000-SWU uranium enrichment capacity.

Salehi said instead of completing the project over the next seven or eight years, the country had been building the facility in the course of the negotiations that led to the 2015 nuclear agreement with world countries.

“The factory was, however, not made operational,” said the AEOI chief.

Salehi added that the facility can make rotors for around 60 centrifuges of the IR-6 design on a daily basis, noting that one such centrifuge can provide an enrichment capacity of 10 SWUs.

The official estimated that with this factory, Iran will be able to reach the 190,000-SWU capacity within 10 months.

“The (Leader) was totally informed and we provided him with the necessary information at the time. And now with his order, this factory has gone on stream,” he added.

“We have done everything in line with the regulations,” Salehi said.

The country has done nothing in violation of the United Nations nuclear watchdog’s Safeguards Agreement, the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - which authorizes inspections - or the 2015 nuclear deal itself, he noted.

Salehi also said that efforts to acquire natural uranium has resulted in a stockpile of as much as 950 tons.

He said Iran imported 400 tons since the 2015 landmark nuclear deal, bringing its stockpile to between 900-950 tons - up from 500 tons.

Salehi said that's enough for Iran to reach its longtime goal of 190,000 centrifuge machines to enrich uranium, stressing the need for more natural uranium to maintain this capacity.

SWU is the standard measure of the effort required to separate isotopes of uranium during an enrichment process. 1SWU is equivalent to 1 kilogram of separative work.

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