TEHRAN -- The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said Wednesday the country has started injecting uranium gas into its advanced centrifuges following a recent anti-Tehran resolution by the UN nuclear agency’s Board of Governors.
 “We have started feeding gas into several thousand advanced centrifuges and put them into operation as part of plans aimed at the development of the nuclear program,” Muhammad Eslami told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting.
He, however, stressed that Iran’s peaceful nuclear program is transparent and under the supervision of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always shown that it favors interaction but it will never back down in the face of force, pressure, and illegal and unlawful conduct of the other side,” Eslami said.
The Iranian nuclear chief warned that any anti-Tehran accusations would backfire.
“Iran’s nuclear program has utterly transparent and peaceful goals, and if they want to disregard the JCPOA-related goals and their own obligations, and unilaterally put pressure on the country by making excuses and leveling accusations, they will receive a response” that will backfire on them, Eslami said.
“Our goals are clear, our quantitative and qualitative goals are completely transparent, and we are moving in this direction, and we have increasingly benefited from the expected results, and its effects will also be felt in the lives of the people.”
Eslami said Iran’s nuclear program is under the supervision of the IAEA and in conformity with Safeguards Agreement as well as the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The AEOI chief said some of the accusations against Iran date back 20 years and were leveled with the complicity of anti-Iran groups and services to mount pressure on the Islamic Republic but were later proven to be unsubstantiated and fabricated.
The remarks came a day after Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Iran is to activate several thousands of its domestically manufactured advanced centrifuges in response to the United Nations nuclear agency’s recent Western-backed resolution against the country.
Araghchi said the retaliatory measure was to come in reaction to the UK, France, and Germany’s forwarding the United States-backed resolution to the IAEA’s Board of Governors and the body’s adoption of the resolution, which took place on Friday.
Aragchi said the European trio’s policy towards the Islamic Republic is “confrontational and meddlesome,” calling the approach unjustifiable and unconstructive.
Iran had already warned that any resolution against its peaceful nuclear program would be met with a quick response.
In 2015, Iran proved the peaceful nature of its nuclear program to the world by signing the JCPOA with six world powers.
However, Washington’s unilateral withdrawal in 2018 and its subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the deal in limbo.
In 2019, Iran started to roll back the limits it had accepted under the JCPOA after the other parties failed to live up to their commitments.