President Hassan Rouhani has said Iran will keep strengthening its nuclear programme and continue negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal in the wake of the attack on its nuclear facility which Tehran blamed on Israel.
“This is the answer to your malignancy,” he said in a televised address on Wednesday in reference to the country’s announcement on Tuesday that it will begin enriching uranium to a new high of 60 percent and deploy new centrifuges in response to an attack on its nuclear facility in Natanz.
"When you commit a crime, we will cut off your hand. We cut off both your hands, one with IR6 [centrifuges] and one with 60 percent [enrichment]. Of course, we won’t wait,” he said.
Iran will not be idle when its legal nuclear activity overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is sabotaged, the Iranian president said.
Isfahan’s Natanz facilities were hit with a large blackout on Sunday, the second attack in less than a year, in what Iran said was an act of “nuclear terrorism” orchestrated by Israel.
Kamez Gharibabadi, Iran’s representative to international organisations in Vienna, said in a tweet that 60 percent enrichment will be done in two cascades of IR4 and IR6 machines, and “we expect to accumulate the product next week”.
Iranian officials have said they intend to use the enriched uranium to produce molybdenum, ultimately to manufacture radiopharmaceuticals.
