Iran Announces Sharp Rise In Enriched Uranium Production

(France 24) Tehran - Iran announced Monday a more than tenfold increase in enriched uranium production following a series of steps back from commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by the United States. Iran has also developed two new advanced centrifuges one of which is undergoing testing said Ali Akbar Salehi the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. Enriched uranium production has reached five kilograms per day Salehi told reporters at the Natanz facility in central Iran in remarks broadcast by state TV. That compares with the level of 450 grams two months ago when it abandoned a number of commitments made under a landmark 2015 nuclear deal. Tehran decided in May to suspend certain commitments under the accord a year after President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal and reimposed sanctions on the Islamic republic. Iran has so far hit back with three packages of countermeasures and threatened to go even further if the remaining partners to the deal -- Britain China France Germany and Russia -- fail to help it circumvent US sanctions. On July 1 Iran said it had increased its stockpile of enriched uranium to beyond a 300-kilo maximum set by the deal and a week later it announced it had exceeded a 3.67-percent cap on the purity of its uranium stocks. It fired up advanced centrifuges to boost its enriched uranium stockpiles on September 7.