Iran steps up its nuclear capability, enriches uranium

NEWS DESK

Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi said on Tuesday that his country had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would increase its ability to enrich uranium by increasing the number of its centrifuges.

Salehi who heads the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency said, "We have delivered the agency a message about the start of some activities." The spokesman on behalf of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Behruz Kamalundi said that Iran has the ability to accelerate the production of centrifuges that are used to enrich uranium, and UF6 is the raw material used in manufacturing the centrifuges.

Iranian leader Ali Khamenei said on Monday that he had ordered to be prepared to increase uranium enrichment if the nuclear deal held with the major countries in 2015 collapsed after the United States withdrew from it last month.

Under the deal with the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China, Iran would limit its ability to enrich uranium to persuade those powers that it would not be able to develop nuclear bombs.

A.H

ANHA