Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said yesterday his country was ready to accept international mediation over the nuclear deal signed with major powers in 2015, as Tehran prepares for the third step to reduce its nuclear obligations.
"Any mediation should focus on bringing the United States back to the 2015 agreement, which it withdrew last year," Zarif said after meeting Finnish Foreign Affairs Minister Pika Haavisto. Zarif said his country was not interested in direct talks with Washington.
In the same vein, the Iranian Shura Council member, Hamid Reza Haji Babayi, revealed that Tehran intends to use a new generation of centrifuges to enrich uranium, marking the third step Iran is taking to reduce its obligations towards the nuclear agreement concluded in 2015.
The new IR-8 centrifuges are 20 times stronger than the first-generation centrifuges Iran is currently using to enrich uranium, Radio Verda reported on Monday.
Hamid Reza Haji Babayi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Iran was using centrifuges from the IR-6 and IR-7 models and was now planning to produce the next generation of IR machines. R-8 ».
The number of new centrifuges Iran plans to use is unclear, taking into account the restrictions imposed on Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which the United States withdrew last year, Radio Verda said.
According to Salehi, Iran has assembled 20 IR-8 centrifuges so far. In 2016, the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization announced the start of testing new centrifuges by pumping UF6 gas.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said earlier that Iran had installed up to 33 IR-6 centrifuges and had pumped UF6 gas into only 10.
UF6 or UF6 is a gas produced from uranium oxide, reaching this stage in preparation for enrichment.
On the other hand, the Iranian oil tanker, which was at the center of a crisis between Tehran and the West, left Gibraltar, hours after the region rejected a US request for longer detention. Reventiv's tracking data showed that the tanker had diverted to the Greek city of Kalamata.
The data also showed that the Iranian oil tanker Grace 1, which changed its name to Adrian Daria 1, left Gibraltar around 11 pm local time.
"We are pleased that this ordeal is over, and I hope this will lead to a reduction in escalation," Zarif said.
He also said that the US detention order had no legal basis, and that it was politically motivated to "escalate further."
The Greek authorities did not comment on the situation.
Iran said any US attempt to seize the tanker would have "serious consequences."
Asked if the United States could renew the request to detain the tanker after sailing from Gibraltar, State Department spokesman Abbas Moussavi said: "Such an act, even talking about it, would endanger the safety of navigation in international waters."
"Iran has issued the necessary warnings through official channels, especially through the Swiss embassy, to US officials not to make such a mistake, because it will lead to serious consequences," he said on state television. The detention of the tanker ended last week, but a federal court in Washington issued an order, last Friday, to detain the tanker and the oil it transports and nearly one million dollars.
The Gibraltar region said it would not comply with this request, as it complied with EU law.
"The Gibraltar EU sanctions regime against Iran is much narrower than that imposed by the United States," the Gibraltar government said in a statement.
"The central authority in Gibraltar cannot ask the Gibraltar Supreme Court" to seize the tanker as the United States is asking.
Washington has tried to seize the tanker, saying it has links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which it considers a terrorist organization.
"If the higher authorities ask the navy, we are ready to accompany the tanker Adrian," Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, commander of Iran's navy, was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency. Video footage and photos of the tanker showed the Iranian flag flying red, green and white, with its new name written in white paint on its structure above the previous name (Grace 1).
 € طهران Tehran intends to use a new generation of centrifuges to enrich uranium, which is the third step taken by Iran in reducing its commitments towards the nuclear agreement concluded in 2015.