"The final production line of [new] centrifuges hasfinished," Fereydoon Abbasi, the head of Iran’s Atomic EnergyOrganization said. “The early generation of these centrifugeswhich have low efficiency will be put away soon,” he added, ascited by Fars News Agency.
In February, Tehran announced that it would install new IR-2mcentrifuges – which can produce more enriched uranium in a shorterperiod of time - at its Natanz uranium enrichment plant. However,Sunday’s statement appeared to be the first time Iran has provideda specific figure about such machines.
Abbasi stressed earlier that the new generation centrifuges weredeveloped for the enrichment of uranium below five percent andcannot be used for 20-percent enrichment.
Currently, the Islamic republic has around 12,000 IR-1first-generation centrifuges at its Natanz facility. Earlier inFebruary, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed thatthe country had begun installing advanced centrifuges at the plant.The UN nuclear watchdog said that 180 IR-2m centrifuges had beenput in place at the facility but were not operational.
The move drew condemnation from world powers fearing Tehran isseeking weapons technology, while Iran maintains its nuclearprogram is purely for civilian purposes.
The news on 3,000 new centrifuges comes less than a week aftersix world powers - the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China -and Iran gathered in Kazakhstan for talks on the disputed nuclearprogram.
International negotiators offered a limited relaxation of tightsanctions against Iran. In exchange, they want the republic tosuspend its 20 percent uranium enrichment and, also, freeze itsworks at its Fordo underground facility.
Tehran said it was positive about the outcome of the two-daynegotiations which ended up with an agreement on furthermeetings.
“The new proposal of the P5+1 group is closer to some of ourviews,” said Ali Baqeri, deputy secretary of Iran's SupremeNational Security Council. The details of the proposal should befurther discussed at the Istanbul expert-level meeting, he added,as cited by Iranian PressTV.
Israel – which earlier signalled the possibility of launching apre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities if diplomacyyields no results in nuclear talks – believes the latest round oftalks brought no breakthrough.
"My impression from these talks is that the only thing thatis gained from them is a buying of time, and through thistime-buying Iran intends to continue enriching nuclear material foran atomic bomb and is indeed getting closer to this goal,"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Sunday, cites Reuters.
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on the contrary, saidearlier he was optimistic about the meeting, but added that Iranstill has to win the trust of the international community.
