Iran claims to be enriching uranium 20% faster than planned

Iranian authorities have so far produced 17 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20 percent purity, in violation of the 2015 nuclear deal, compliance with which Iran is making conditional on the United States returning to it first.

Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohamad Baqer Qalibaf announced on Thursday that "the nuclear law has been implemented step by step and uranium enrichment to 20 per cent is ahead of schedule".

The law, passed in December by the conservative majority in parliament, stipulates the production of 120 kilograms of uranium enriched to that purity per year, a process that began in early January.

During a visit to the Fordo nuclear plant, Qalibaf stressed that the process "is well under way" and that "it has been possible to enrich 17 kg of uranium in about a month", according to statements reported by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

On the installation of advanced IR2M centrifuges, another item in the parliamentary bill, he said that "it is underway".

In this regard, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Behruz Kamalvandi, reported today that 1,000 IR2M centrifuges will be installed in Natanz within three months, when the nuclear pact only allows the use of first-generation centrifuges.

The deal, known as the JCPOA, was signed in 2015 between Iran and six major powers (the US, Russia, China, France, the UK and Germany) to limit Iran's atomic programme in exchange for relief from international sanctions.

The US's 2018 withdrawal from the deal under President Donald Trump and its reimposition of sanctions on Iran greatly weakened the agreement and led Tehran to gradually renege on its obligations.

With the arrival of Democrat Joe Biden in the White House, some hope has been raised by his stated intention to return to the JCPOA, but his conditions have not gone down well with Tehran.

The new US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said yesterday that "if Iran returns to full compliance with its JCPOA obligations, the United States will do the same". 

However, in Tehran's view, the first step has to be taken by Washington: "The ball is in the US court," Iranian President Hasan Rohani said recently.

In response to Blinken, Iranian chief diplomat Mohamad Javad Zarif said today that the US violated the JCPOA and blocked even medicine imports, while Iran "only took the planned corrective measures".

"Who should take the first step? Never forget Trump's ultimate failure," he wrote on his official Twitter account.