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Tehran, April 4 (IANS) The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said Tehran has produced 50 kg of the 20 per cent enriched uranium.
The 20 per cent uranium enrichment process has been launched as part of Iran's Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions bill, which was approved by Parliament in December 2020, reports Xinhua news agency.
According to the bill, the AEOI should produce 120 kg of 20 per cent enriched uranium within a year after the implementation of the action plan which began on January 4, AEOI chief Ali-Akbar Salehi said on Saturday.
Iranian authorities have said a boost in uranium enrichment, along with other measures to reduce some commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is a reaction to the US withdrawal from the agreement.
"If there is an agreement and America returns to the JCPOA and Iran verifies that, Tehran can instantly stop 20 per cent enrichment and other expansions," Salehi added.
The JCPOA was reached in 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the US, the UK, Russia, France, China, plus Germany) and the EU.
Tehran agreed to roll back parts of its nuclear weapons program in exchange for decreased economic sanctions.
Washington under former President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 and tightened sanctions on Iran.
The US and Iran are at a standoff over reviving the nuclear deal.
The Joe Biden administration said that if Iran returns to full compliance with the JCPOA, the US would do the same.
But Iran insisted its compliance would only take place once US sanctions were removed.
--IANS
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