“Understand IAEA inspectors will be on the ground in Natanz tomorrow, according to sources,” Laurance Norman, a WSJ correspondent, wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday.
No official authority has confirmed the report yet.
This follows a series of developments regarding the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in the past few days.
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that Iran has informed the IAEA of a plan to start 60% uranium enrichment as of Wednesday, following an act of sabotage targeting the country's Natanz nuclear facility.
Araghchi said that not only will Iran soon replace the centrifuges that were damaged in the act of sabotage at Natanz, but will also install an additional 1,000 centrifuges of a 50-percent higher enrichment capacity at the facility.
The enrichment level exceeds Iran's current top level of 20 percent.
Upon initiation, the measure would be part of the remedial measures Iran has been taking since May 2019 in return for the United States and others’ non-commitment to the nuclear deal between Tehran and world countries.
Iran’s counteraction fits well within the JCPOA’s Paragraph 36 that entitles it to the reprisal.
Araghchi is in Vienna for another round of talks aimed at finding a way for the United States to rejoin the 2015 nuclear agreement, which it abandoned in 2018 and re-imposed the sanctions on Iran that the JCPOA had lifted.
Tehran maintains that it will only reverse its remedial measures — the phased reduction of its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA — if the US removes all sanctions in one step and in a verifiable manner.
MNA
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