Iran has started enriching uranium to 20%, confirms IAEA

UN's nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) said today that Iran has started enriching uranium to 20 per cent after the country announced it had begun the process of enriching uranium at the underground Fordow facility.

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"Iran today began feeding uranium already enriched up to 4.1 per cent U-235 into six centrifuge cascades at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant for further enrichment up to 20 per cent," the IAEA said.

Reports said President Hassan Rouhani had ordered the enrichment process days earlier. The European Union warned that Iran's decision was "considerable departure" from the nuclear deal.

Iran government spokesman Ali Rabei had said earlier that "a few minutes ago, the process of producing 20% enriched uranium has started in Fordow enrichment complex".

Iran had signed the nuclear deal with five permanent members of the UN Security Council Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States including Germany, however, the Trump administration had walked out of the deal in 2018 and imposed sanctions on its oil and bank sectors.

Iran had earlier appealed to the European nations to back the deal, however, it had started walking back on the deal as it informed the IAEA that it had started using advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium.

In 2019, Iran had informed the IAEA that the uranium enrichment had increased ten-fold and it had developed two new advanced centrifuges.

EU spokesman Peter Stano warned Iran's nuclear enrichment "would constitute a considerable departure from Iran's nuclear commitments under the JCPOA."