TEHRAN -- The Iranian
Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tehran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of its decision to start enriching uranium to the purity level of 60 percent at Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) in November 2022.
Nasser Kanaani made the remark in response to a joint statement by the United States, Britain, France and Germany on Friday, which accused Iran of being “inconsistent in meeting its nuclear obligations as shown by a recent IAEA report.”
In a statement published on the ministry’s website, Kanaani said Iran informed the UN agency of its uranium enrichment to 60 percent purity at the Fordo facility on Nov. 17, 2022, and all modes of enrichment had been mentioned in the design information questionnaire (DIQ) submitted to the agency.
Turning to the IAEA’s recent inspection of the facility in January 2023, he said no new or contradictory measure has been implemented at the facility compared with November’s DIQ.
The UN agency on Wednesday accused Iran of making an “undeclared change” to the interconnection between the two clusters of advanced machines enriching uranium to up to 60 percent purity at its Fordo plant.
Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said the IAEA’s claim was based on a “mistaken” report by an inspector.
On Monday, Iran said “diplomatic dynamism” exists with regard to the talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal, and messages are still being exchanged between the parties to the 2015 nuclear deal.
Speaking at a weekly press conference here, Kanaani said there is diplomatic dynamism with respect to the sanctions-lifting talks through various channels.
“Messages are being exchanged at different levels in this regard, and the Islamic Republic has always welcomed these attempts and measures with goodwill,” he said.
Regarding some regional efforts, the spokesperson noted that, “Qatar is one of the friendly countries in the region, which has always made diplomatic efforts with good faith to help bring closer the views on various issues between Iran and other parties, in particular the sanctions-lifting negotiations.”
The talks kicked off in the Austrian capital city of Vienna in April 2021, with the intention of removing anti-Iran sanctions and examining the U.S.’s seriousness in rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal.
The negotiations, however, have been at a standstill since August 2022 due to Washington’s insistence on its hard-nosed position of not removing all the sanctions that were slapped on Tehran by the previous U.S. administration.
Kanaani said a visit to Tehran by the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is possible in the future provided that the technical preparations are in place.
He further referred to Iran’s “close and continuous cooperation” with the IAEA, adding that contact between the two sides will go on in a technical framework.
Elsewhere in his presser, Kanaani advised Azerbaijan to exercise restraint and avoid haste and prejudice in its judgment about the recent incident at Azerbaijan’s embassy in Tehran.
“We will pursue this issue in a logical and principled framework and we hope that the bilateral relations of the two neighboring and