Israel says Iran Adding Advanced Centrifuges At New Nuclear Sites
Iran is working on advanced uranium centrifuges at new underground sites being built near its Natanz nuclear plant, Israel's defense minister said on Tuesday.
Iran is working on advanced uranium centrifuges at new underground sites being built near its Natanz nuclear plant, Israel's defense minister said on Tuesday.
Benney Gantz in a speech at Reichman University near Tel Aviv gave figures that appeared to go beyond those published by the UN‘s International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA.
Centrifuges are used to purify uranium for civilian projects or, at higher levels, to make fissile materiál for a nuclear bomb. Iranian progress in the field is being watched by world powers trying to resurrect the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, known as JCPOA.
"Iran is making an effort to complete the manufacturing and installation of 1,000 additional advanced IR6 centrifuges in its nuclear facilities, including new facilities being built at underground sites abutting Natanz," Gantz said.
A March 3 report by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had installed or planned to install a total of three IR6 cascades, amounting to around 660 machines.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said last month that Iran had set up a new underground Natanz workshop for making centrifuge parts, an apparent precaution against attacks.
In his remarks, Gantz alluded to Israel's long-standing threat to take military action if it deems diplomacy is at a dead end to deny its arch-enemy the means to make nuclear weapons.
"The cost of such a future war, which we hope will not happen, can be prevented or reduced" with tougher negotiations by world powers, he said.
Reporting by Reuters
Commenting on the possibility of a final deal and whether the US would take the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) off the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO), the US State Department Spokesman Ned Price said Friday that that at this point a deal remained "far from certain." However, he described the resumption of conversation after several weeks of delay as important and said messages have been conveyed back and forth through the EU coordinator of the talks, Enrique Mora.
Mora was in Tehran this week to make another attempt at breaking the stalemate in the Vienna talks to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCOPA) which came to a pause in mid-March when Iran demanded that the IRGC be delisted.
Mora’s visit coincided with economic chaos in Iran resulting from a sudden jump in food prices followed by anti-government protests. But it is not clear if Tehran feels under pressure to make a deal and lift US economic sanctions or has decided to muddle through despite financial pressures.
"We are preparing equally for scenarios in which we have a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA and in which we do not.It is up to Iran to decide whether it wants to conclude a deal quickly," Price told reporters.
Price on several occasions has refused to comment on the possibility of IRGC's delisting which Iran insists is a "redline", and said the US does not "negotiate in public".
The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell told reporters at a G7 foreign ministers' meeting in northern Germany Friday that Mora's visit to Tehran has unblocked the process of negotiations. "It has gone better than expected - the negotiations were stalled, and now they have been reopened," Borrell said.
The Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has also expressed optimism following Mora's two-day visit and his meeting with Iranian officials but has equally put the onus on the United States. "A good and reliable agreement is within reach if the United States makes a political decision and adheres to its commitments," he said in a tweet on Friday.
Iranian media have sounded optimistic following Mora's visit, which coincided with a visit by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Al Thani, to Tehran. Although there was no mention of the nuclear issue having been discussed during the Emir's visit in Iranian media, pundits says his mediation between Tehran and Washington could have a positive role in the future of the talks and help break the deadlock.
"The Qatari Emir's visit could be [an attempt at] creating a new mechanism and ending the stalemate in the talks between Iran and 4+1 countries in Vienna," international affairs expert Hasan Hanizadeh wrote in a commentary entitled "Resolution of the stalemate in Talks" in reformist Arman-e Melli newspaper Saturday.
"The Emir's extensive relations with European powers and the US can have a positive impact on the outcome of the Vienna talks," Hanizadeh wrote.
In an interview with Arman-e Melli on Saturday, another international affairs expert, Morteza Makki, said besides Qatar, Iraq and Oman are trying to bring the nuclear talks to a conclusion. "These are signs that there is a collective will to restore thee JCPOA and these diplomatic moves together may help make a success out of Enrique Mora's visit," he said. "It looks like Enrique Mora was given a green light when he came to Tehran and that Tehran has shown flexibility and wants to hear out the other side's arguments," he said.
