"We are taking a break now. We don’t abandon the project. It will be fully implemented," Tass News Agency quoted him as saying.
He noted however that Russia will need time to react to the new circumstances, i.e. Iran’s injecting gas to the centrifuges at Fordow and the United States’ imposing new sanctions against this facility from December 15.
"The subject of the Fordow project was raised [at the meeting on the Iran nuclear deal] by Iran’s and China’s representatives. We made two big presentations on this matter with the participation of Rosatom representatives. We stressed that gas injection to the [centrifuges’] cascades, which are located in the same premises where the works on reconfiguration for the production of stable isotopes are to be conducted, has somewhat hampered the original plan of reconfiguration. We will need time to assess the consequences and, probably, elaborate some technological solutions and it will inevitably mean some delays," he noted.
On the other hand, he drew attention to the United States’ notification of the resumption of sanctions against Fordow from December 15. "We need to understand what kind of risks may be linked with further works on this project," Ryabkov added.
On December 5, Russia’s TVEL fuel company (incorporated into the Rosatom state nuclear corporation) informed Tehran that it had suspended work on a project to revamp two chains of gas centrifuges at Iran’s Fordow facility for the production of stable isotopes for medical purposes following Tehran’s steps to further reduce its commitments under the nuclear deal.
After Iran started on November 6 the process of injecting gas into centrifuges at its underground Fordow facility, which de-facto meant the start of the fourth stage of Iran’s reduction of its nuclear commitments, the United States said it would re-impose sanctions against the Fordow facility starting from December 15.
MNA/TASS