"The Secretary‑General is aware of the announcement made by the President of Iran regarding centrifuges. The Secretary‑General has consistently reiterated that the JCPOA represents a major achievement in nuclear non‑proliferation and diplomacy and has contributed to regional and international peace and security," Dujarric said according to the UN website.
According to him, the UN Secretary-General reiterated his call to JCPOA participants to abide fully by their respective commitments under the agreement and on all other Member States to continue to support the agreement.
Iran demands European countries make up for its losses after the US withdrawal from the accord and help Iran with its oil sales and banking relations.
Tehran says its countermeasures fit within its rights under paragraphs 26 and 36 of the nuclear deal, and that it will reverse the measures once its demands are met.
As a first step, Iran increased its enriched uranium stockpile to a level above the 300 kilograms set by the JCPOA.
In the second step, Tehran began enriching uranium to purity rates beyond the JCPOA-limit of 3.76 percent.
Furthermore, Tehran lifted all restrictions on nuclear research and development and announced it would use advanced centrifuges as its third step. Each time Iran gives a 60-day deadline to the other parties before taking its next step.
“We will take the fourth step in reducing commitments to the JCPOA on November 6 and I will declare the directives to the Atomic Energy Organization today,” said President Rouhani on Tuesday.
“The fourth step includes reducing commitments regarding the Fordow enrichment facility,” Rouhani said.
“Under the JCPOA, we were inquired to have up to 1,044 centrifuges at Fordow, which were supposed to remain without gas. Starting tomorrow, we will start injecting gas into the centrifuges at Fordow as part of the fourth JCPOA step,” the president added.
“To all the remaining sides to the JCPOA and other friendly countries, I’d like to state in advance that our new measures will be taken under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” said Rouhani.
“Also, all measures in the fourth step are reversible just like in the previous steps; that is, the moment the other sides to the agreement begin to live up to their commitments, we will resume our own suspended commitments as well,” he added.
“Some countries made efforts to reach positive results before the fourth deadline ran out, but we have no other choice but to take the fourth step starting tomorrow,” Rouhani said.
He went on to stress, however, that “there is time for negotiations for the next two months. If we reached a proper solution for the removal of sanctions on our export of oil and metal, if we could easily use our money in trade transactions, then we would be fully ready to return to the previous conditions [regarding the level of our JCPOA commitments.”
Under the supervision of officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a 2,800-kilogram-cylinder, containing 2,000 kilograms of UF6 (hexafluorouranium), was put in the gas feeding rooms of Shahid Masoud Ali Mohammadi Enrichment Complex in Fordow site on Wednesday.
MNA/PR