BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 1
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The list of Iran's main nuclear facilities will remain secret, given the security issues, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said, Trend reports citing the Iranian Parliament’s information portal.
He made the remark after a meeting of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian parliament.
The official noted that the appendix to the statement between the AEOI and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) consists of this list.
"There are no conditions on this list. However, the list includes accurate information about nuclear facilities and surveillance cameras," he said.
Salehi added that if the Board of Directors of the IAEA adopts a resolution against Iran in connection with the suspension of the implementation of the Additional Protocol, Iran will respond appropriately. A letter was sent to the agency in this regard.
On Feb. 21, 2020, a joint statement was issued by the chairman of the AEOI, Ali Akbar Salehi, and the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi. According to the statement, Iran will continue to fully implement the agreement with the agency on safety.
Iran will hold back to certain information related to its activities and monitoring for three months, and during this period the IAEA will have no access to this information. If all sanctions against Iran are lifted within three months, Iran will provide this information to the agency. If the sanctions are not lifted, this information will be permanently deleted.
As reported, in late 2020, the Iranian parliament has decided to implement a strategic plan to tackle the sanctions, citing the non-implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and six countries and the imposition of sanctions on Iran.
According to the decision of the Iranian parliament, as of February 23, Iran will suspend the implementation of additional steps and an additional protocol provided for in the nuclear deal. Thus, the IAEA's control mechanism will be reduced by 20-30 percent.
Iran's Fordow nuclear facility currently produces 17-20 grams of 20-percent enriched uranium per hour.
According to the decision of the Iranian parliament, 1,000 units of IR2M centrifuges must be installed. The operations have been begun in this regard, and more than 320 units of IR2M centrifuges have been installed.
In January 2016, JCPOA was launched between Iran and the P5+1 group (US, Russia, China, UK, France, and Germany) in connection with Iran's nuclear program. In May 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the deal and imposed sanctions on Iran in November of the same year.
To preserve the agreements reached as part of the JCPOA, the European signatories of the deal started in January 2019 that a financial mechanism for maintaining trade with Iran called INSTEX was formed.
On May 8, 2019, Iran announced that it had ceased fulfilling its commitments regarding the sale of over 300 kilograms of uranium, as stated in the deal, basing its decision on the other signatories that have not fulfilled their obligations. On July 7, Iran announced that it will not be fulfilling its commitments regarding the enrichment of uranium at 3.67 percent and the reconstruction of the Arak Heavy Water Reactor Facility as stated in the deal.
Iran announced that it will enrich uranium using next-generation centrifuges and will not mix it with the enriched uranium residues as part of the third step of reducing commitments in JCPOA on Sept.5.
On Nov. 5, 2019, Iran announced that it took the fourth step in connection with reducing its commitments to the nuclear agreement. So, uranium gas is being pumped to the centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.
On Jan.2020, Iran took the last fifth step in reducing the number of its commitments within JCPOA.
The US imposed new sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies, and individuals.