Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA) – Undersecretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Javad Vaeedi said that his country has so far produced 300 tons of UF6 gas in Isfahan nuclear facility, in central Iran.
Addressing a congregation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officials here on Sunday, Vaeedi also said that despite pressures by western countries which once stressed that Iran should not have even 20 centrifuges, there are now 3,000 centrifuges operative in an underground facility in Iran.
Two years ago, we started piloting one cascade of 164 centrifuges on the ground to do 3.5% nuclear enrichment. Then, Westerners changed their mind and said one cascade would not pose a problem, he said.
“But they stressed that it should not have been increased to two cascades. Yet, when 18 cascades – each comprising 164 centrifuges – came on the stream, Solana told Dr. Larijani and Dr. Jalili that they didn’t want Iran to reach the point where it is today. He told us that we may keep these 3,000 centrifuges but we should not increase the number.”
The official further pointed to Iran’s initiative – known as a modality or action plan – to build international confidence and return the country’s nuclear dossier to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and said, “We have moved on a track specified by the Agency and the Agency has approved that over 50% of the issues have been resolved and that the remaining issues will be resolved within the next few months.”
