Russia: Iran’s Step to Resume Uranium Enrichment Was Predictable - Tasnim News Agency

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mikhail Ulyanov described Iran’s decision to increase uranium enrichment level up to 20% as predictable.

Rejecting as breaking news, the announcement by Iranian administration on Monday that Tehran has officially started to enrich uranium to a purity level of 20 percent, Ulyanov described the move as “predictable in the light of the law passed by the Iranian Parliament”.

The Russian diplomat also highlighted that the main point of Iran’s move is that it “remains reversible” within possible normalization of the situation around key principles of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

The Iranian administration’s spokesperson Ali Rabiee announced on Monday that Tehran has officially started to enrich uranium to a purity level of 20 percent, adding that the whole process started after preliminary measures including informing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and submitting the Design Information Questionnaire based on the country's Safeguards commitments.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) had said Friday that Tehran had notified the IAEA of its decision about boosting enrichment activities in compliance with a parliamentary bill.

Last month, the Iranian parliament approved a law, dubbed the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions, which requires the government to scale back more obligations under the JCPOA.

The law further urges the AEOI to start the installation, gas injection, enrichment and storage of nuclear materials up to an appropriate enrichment degree within a period of three months using at least 1,000 IR-2m centrifuges.

Tehran has expressed its readiness to reverse the suspension of its commitments only if the US returns to the nuclear deal and lifts all sanctions without any preconditions or if the European co-signatories manage to protect business ties with Iran against Washington’s sanctions as part of their contractual obligations.