Iran is using advanced centrifuges banned under the 2015 nuclear deal to enrich uranium faster and well past limits set in the deal.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, unveiled the Islamic country’s newest capabilities in a press conference on Saturday, according to the Associated Press. Kamalvandi addressed reporters while standing in front of 20 IR-6 centrifuges and 20 IR-4 centrifuges.
“Under current circumstances, the Islamic Republic of Iran is capable of increasing its enriched uranium stockpile as well as its enrichment levels and that is not just limited to 20%,” Kamalvandi said. “We are capable inside the country to increase the enrichment much more beyond that.”
Under the nuclear deal, Iran was limited to using just IR-1 centrifuges to enrich uranium. The more advanced iterations of centrifuges can enrich uranium at a much faster rate: 10 times faster for the IR-6s and five times faster for the IR-4s, according to Iranian officials.
The new centrifuges will likely shorten the one-year time frame experts had said Iran needs to be able to obtain enough weapons-grade uranium to build a nuclear bomb.
Kamalvandi said that Iran “is not after the bomb” but warned that “if Europeans want to make any decision, they should do it soon.” Several European countries are attempting to strike another deal with Iran after President Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear treaty in 2018.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper of the United States said Iran’s announcement was predictable, telling reporters at a press conference, “The Iranians are going to pursue what the Iranians have always intended to pursue.”
