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With a mask - and a mission: the regime in Tehran does not want to bow to pressure from abroad and accelerate the expansion of the nuclear program
Photo: IRAN PRESIDENT OFFICE HANDOUT / EPA
Iran is turning words into deeds: The Islamic Republic has put new centrifuges for enriching uranium into operation.
Recordings broadcast live by state television on Saturday showed how President Hassan Rouhani ordered the injection of uranium gas into the centrifuges.
With this, Iran is again violating the international nuclear agreement.
This only allows older systems to be operated at the Natans nuclear facility.
At the ceremony, Rouhani reiterated that none of his country's nuclear activities had a military background.
"We adhere to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and have no military goals," he said.
"That is why a peaceful nuclear program is our legitimate right that we will continue to pursue even without foreign aid."
In the Vienna nuclear agreement of 2015, Iran had committed itself to only use the older generation of centrifuges IR-1 and to keep the uranium enrichment level below 4 percent.
But after the US withdrew from the deal in 2018, Iran gradually failed to meet its obligations under the agreement.
According to the Iranian nuclear organization AEOI, the country has enriched 57 kilograms of 20 percent uranium within four months.
The AEOI claims that it is able to increase the degree of enrichment to 60 percent with the faster centrifuges.
Dispute over sanctions in negotiations in Vienna
Talks to revive the nuclear deal from 2015 were resumed this week in Vienna with the participation of the USA.
US President Joe Biden has promised a return to his country after his predecessor Donald Trump unilaterally terminated the contract in 2018.
According to the negotiating circles, there were disputes over which sanctions against Iran should be lifted.
Iran insists on the withdrawal of all punitive measures that Trump had imposed after the termination.
The USA is apparently not ready for this and is restricting.
This demand leads to a dead end, said a high-ranking representative of the US State Department.
dop / dpa / Reuters