Iran has developed infrastructure to produce electricity at its Natanz facility, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi said on 5 June, adding that it had notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it would install centrifuges there.
Salehi noted that Iran’s nuclear developments would remain within the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed in July 2015 with the USA, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany under which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear development programme in return for the lifting of sanctions. US President Donald Trump announced on 8 May that Washington will pull out the deal and would impose the highest level of economic sanctions on Tehran and on any foreign company that continued to do business with Iran, prompting Tehran’s latest moves.
"We are not engaged in anything that would contradict the JCPOA,” said Salehi. “I have not said that we will begin production of new centrifuges from tomorrow. We have said that we will prepare the infrastructure needed to produce the centrifuges." Earlier the same day, deputy head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Behrouz Kamalvandi, said AEOI would inform IAEA about Iran’s decision to increase capacities on uranium enrichment. "A letter that will be handed over to the IAEA says that the process of increasing the capacity to produce uranium hexafluoride and uranium tetrafluoride will start on 5 June," Kamalvandi said in an interview with the ISNA news agency.
The previous day, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the AEOI to immediately prepare for achieving 190,000 SWU within the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). He said, “Iran will never tolerate both suffering from sanctions and nuclear restrictions.” Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran stopped enriching uranium to the 20% level and agreed to a limit of under 5%. It will adhere to that limit, Ayatollah Khamenei affirmed. Iran currently is using nearly 5000 centrifuges and enriching uranium at 3.4%, but it says it needs more enriched uranium for its only nuclear power plant. Iran denies it has ever sought nuclear weapons.
International reaction
European states have said they will not withdraw from the JCPOA and are considering ways to counter the US sanctions on Iran. The European Union (EU), in response to Iran’s revived nuclear activity, said on 5 June that a "first assessment" indicated that Iran's declared intention to increase uranium enrichment capacity did not violate Tehran's commitments under the JCPOA. "However, at this particularly critical juncture, they will not contribute to building confidence in the nature of the Iranian nuclear programme," EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told AFP. She added, "As stated repeatedly, we expect Iran to stick to all its JCPOA commitments, to be monitored by the IAEA, as it has been doing so far and has been confirmed by the IAEA in 11 consecutive reports."
On 4 June, at the first meeting of the IAEA's Board of Governors since the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, IAEA director general Yukiya Amano reaffirmed the agency's accesses to all the required nuclear sites in Iran, calling on Tehran to ensure "timely and proactive cooperation" with inspections under the 2015 nuclear agreement.
In separate letters to his counterparts in various countries, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said all members of the international community must stand up to US law-breaking behaviour, bullying and disregard for the rule of law after Washington announced it was withdrawing from the JCPOA. He warned of the dangerous consequences of the US "illegal and unilateral" move to pull out from the nuclear agreement.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on 5 June that there was "no indication" of Iran breaching the nuclear deal. He made remarks during at a press conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was on a tour of European states to press them to follow the US move against Iran. The previous day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also defended the Iran nuclear deal in talks with Netanyahu.
