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07 September 2019 Iran has announced that it has turned on the advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium, another step in reducing the commitments envisaged by the agreement on its nuclear program signed in 2015 with the major world powers. Forty centrifuges are now in operation, said the spokesman for Tehran's atomic agency Behruz Kamalvandi.

At a press conference, Kamalvandi said that the agency has activated twenty IR-4 and twenty IR-6 centrifuges, destined for the enrichment of high-quality uranium. New centrifuges will be developed to meet the needs of the country, he added. Enriched uranium can be used to power nuclear power plant reactors, but also to manufacture nuclear weapons.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Cornel Feruta, is scheduled to meet Iranian officials tomorrow.

The measures taken are reversible, if the other partners of the agreement return to respect their obligations, said Kamalvandi, who specified that Iran will in the meantime allow the inspectors of the International Agency to access its nuclear facilities in the meantime atomic energy.

Iran stopped in July from meeting the international agreement's commitments in response to the US decision to abandon the agreement. US President Donald Trump wants to force Tehran to negotiate another agreement that would impose undefined limitations on its nuclear program and stop the development of its ballistic program. But Iran has so far refused.

The other signatory countries of the agreement (Great Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia) have tried to keep it alive, but the new US sanctions have caused the collapse of Iranian oil exports, the fall of the uniform and the surge in 'inflation. the IAEA confirmed on July 1 that Iran violated the limit of 300 kilograms of enriched uranium that it can store.

The US "is not surprised" by Iran's announcement that it has launched advanced centrifuges to increase its stocks of enriched uranium, said US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, referring to what is the third phase of gradual disengagement of the Islamic Republic from the nuclear agreement signed in 2015, and from which the US withdrew unilaterally. "I am not surprised that Tehran has announced that it is going to violate the agreement," Esper said in Paris. "And it is no surprise that the Iranians pursue what they have always intended to pursue," he added.