New Delhi

Just a day after talks for rescuing the troubled nuclear deal got underway, Iran on Saturday announced that it had started up advanced Uranium enrichment centrifuges in a breach of its undertakings in the very deal.

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Iran President Hassan Rouhani officially inaugurated the cascades of 164 IR-6 centrifuges and 30 IR-5 devices at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant in a ceremony broadcast by state television.

No images of the centrifuge cascades were aired on TV. However, engineers at the plant were seen talking that they had introduced uranium hexafluoride gas to the cascades after receiving the order from Rouhani.

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Iran nuclear deal was struck by US and other world powers with Iran in 2015. Former US President Donald Trump unilaterally took US out of the accord in 2018. 

Tuesday saw first round of talks with representatives of the remaining parties to the nuclear deal on bringing the United States back into the deal.

The Vienna talks are focused not only on lifting crippling economic sanctions Trump reimposed, but also on bringing Iran back into compliance after it responded by suspending several of its own commitments.

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All sides said the talks, in which Washington is not participating directly but has the European Union as intermediary, had got off to a good start.

The IR-5 and IR-6 centrifuges allow uranium to be enriched more quickly and in greater amounts than the Iran's first generation devices, which are the only ones that the 2015 deal allows it to use.

Rouhani again underlined at the ceremony, which coincided with Iran's National Nuclear Technology Day, that Tehran's nuclear programme is solely for "peaceful" purposes.

(With AFP inputs)