Mohammad Hassan Asafari told Mehr News correspondent that the board members of the National Security Council visited Natanz nuclear site Saturday, adding “the visit lasted for two to three hours during which the officials inspected various sectors of the site.”
“6,246 IR-1 centrifuges have been removed from the site, which according to the experts had not yet been injected with gas,” he said.
Asafari went on to say that 9,000 centrifuges were semi-active which will not be dismantled until after the Western side has given all necessary guarantees and the IAEA has issued a report resolving the agency’s investigation into past 'possible military dimensions' (PMD) to Iran’s nuclear program.
“The site’s experts told us that once sufficient guarantees have been obtained from the western side to get assured that they will fulfil their commitments under the JCPOA, Iran will remove the remaining centrifuges in line with the IAEA’s verification measures,” he added.
The Iranian official stressed that in the event that the PMD is not closed by Dec. 15 and Iran’s nuclear activities have not been confirmed by then, the rest of the centrifuges will not be dismantled.
According to Asafari, the 6,000 collected centrifuges are being kept in warehouses under the full supervision of the experts at the nuclear sites.
Iran is shutting down inactive centrifuges at the Natanz and Fordow plants under the terms of a deal struck with the six states in July that limits its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions removal.
According to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), only decommissioned centrifuges are being dismantled, of which there are about 10,000 at Natanz and Fordow.
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