Iran has resumed uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow nuclear facility, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) said, further stepping away from its 2015 nuclear deal with major world powers.

The agreement bans enrichment and nuclear material from Fordow. But with feedstock gas entering its centrifuges, the facility, built inside a mountain, will move from the permitted status of research plant to being an active nuclear site.

Iran agreed in 2015 to turn Fordow into a “nuclear, physics and technology centre” where 1,044 centrifuges are used for purposes other than enrichment, such as producing stable isotopes, which have a variety of civil uses.

“After all successful preparations, injection of uranium gas to centrifuges started on November 7 at Fordow. All the process has been supervised by the inspectors of the UN nuclear watchdog,” the AEOI said.

Iran has gradually scaled back its commitments to the deal, under which it curbed its nuclear programme in exchange for the removal of most sanctions, after the US reneged on the agreement last year.

“The process will take a few hours to stabilise and by November 9, when International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors will again visit the site, a uranium enrichment level of 4.5 per cent will have been achieved,” AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi told state TV.

US withdrew from treaty in 2018

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the Iran nuclear deal, is an agreement reached by Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the US) on July 14, 2015. The nuclear deal was endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, adopted on July 20, 2015.

Under JCPOA, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98 per cent, and reduce by about two-thirds the number of its gas centrifuges.

US President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018 and has imposed stringent sanctions against what he describes as the “authoritarian” Iranian regime.

The US reiterated a statement, calling Iran’s move a big step in the wrong direction. US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said Tehran had no credible reason to expand its uranium enrichment programme and Washington would continue its policy of economic pressure on Iran until it changed its behaviour.

In pulling out of the deal, Trump said it was flawed to Iran’s advantage. Washington has since renewed and intensified sanctions on Iran, slashing the country’s economically vital crude oil sales by more than 80 per cent.

The Iranian move will further complicate the chances of saving the accord that European powers and Russia have urged Iran to respect.

French President Emmanuel Macron called Iran’s latest move “grave”, adding that he would speak with both Trump and the Iranian president in the coming days.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said events unfolding around the nuclear deal were extremely alarming and called on Iran to fulfill the terms of the deal. But he added that Moscow understood why Tehran was cutting back on its commitments, and blamed the situation on the US decision to pull out of the pact.

Responding to Washington’s “maximum pressure” policy, Iran has bypassed restrictions of the deal step by step - including by breaching both its cap on stockpiled enriched uranium and on the fissile level of enrichment.

Iran said on November 4 it was developing advanced centrifuges that can enrich uranium faster. The biggest obstacle to building a nuclear weapon is obtaining enough fissile material - highly enriched uranium or plutonium - for the core of a bomb. A central aim of the deal was to extend the time Iran would need to do that, if it chose to, to a year from about two to three months.

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