Tehran, Iran, July 12
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
A senior Iranian lawmaker has warned that if the talks on Iran's nuclear program fail, the country will feed gas to 19,000 centrifuges it has at its Natanz nuclear facility.
Mohammad Hassan Abou Torabi Fard, deputy speaker of the parliament, made the remarks in a live interview on the state IRIB TV.
Currently only 9,000 of the Natanz centrifuges are operating.
Iran and six world powers - China, France, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany - are attempting to reach a long-term deal that would ensure the peaceful nature of Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The initial deadline for the agreement was June 30, but the sides have postponed to July 13.
Iran has volunteered reducing its uranium enrichment level to build trust with the six powers and facilitate a deal.
If the talks fail, Iran will start enriching uranium to at least 20 percent, the MP stressed.
He added that in the meantime, the Islamic Republic will tap its IR8 centrifuges.
IR8 centrifuges are a new generation of Iran-made centrifuges with performance twenty times greater than the old IR1 centrifuges, the first generation of centrifuges Iran made.
Abou Torabi Fard asserted that if the talks fail, Tehran will pursue its 190,000 SWUs target uranium enrichment.
Last year Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shifted attention from the number of centrifuges to the amount of work they can do, stressing that a minimum of 190,000 SWUs uranium enrichment is what Iran needs to run its nuclear program.