Mole: Iran Has Collected Over Five Thousand Centrifuges

The U.S. coordinator for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) stated on Thursday, December 26, that Iran has begun collecting thousands of its centrifuges as part of its commitment to the agreement and is transferring its enriched uranium to Russia. Steven Mull made these remarks during a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting convened to review the implementation of the JCPOA and related issues. He noted that Iran is fulfilling its commitments and is approaching the implementation date of the JCPOA, having made significant progress on several of its obligations. For instance, Iran has started separating its uranium enrichment infrastructure by collecting thousands of centrifuges and transferring them to facilities monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Mull added, "Iran has removed over five thousand of its centrifuges from access and is likely to collect the remaining devices in the coming days." According to the JCPOA, reached on July 14, Tehran agreed to limit its enrichment capacity at the Natanz facility to a maximum of 5,060 centrifuges for the next ten years. Reports indicate that Iran has approximately 19,000 active centrifuges. Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization, stated on November 5 that "the issue of reversibility will certainly be observed in Iran's commitments under the JCPOA regarding the collection of centrifuges." In another part of his remarks, Mull referred to the level of uranium enrichment, stating that Iran is working to reduce its stockpile of various enriched uranium types to 300 kilograms at a level of 3.67 percent. He emphasized that Iran has signed commercial contracts with Russia for the transfer of enriched uranium and expects that these materials—up to 25,000 pounds of enriched uranium at a level of 20 percent—will leave Iran by the end of December. According to this U.S. official, this action will extend Iran's irreversible process. On Wednesday, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, announced that Iran plans to send 9 tons of enriched uranium to Russia, with the shipment expected to be loaded at the Bushehr port in the coming days. He noted that Russia will send yellowcake in exchange for this enriched uranium. Mull further stressed that when the JCPOA is fully implemented, it will fundamentally roll back Iran's nuclear program and provide extensive oversight and verification to ensure that the country's nuclear activities remain peaceful. He also stated that the U.S. will continue to express concerns about other issues unrelated to the nuclear agreement, such as human rights or support for terrorism. The implementation of the JCPOA is expected to lead to the lifting or suspension of crippling international sanctions against Tehran. Iranian officials hope these sanctions will be lifted in January. However, U.S. congressional Republicans argue that sanctions should not be lifted following the recent missile test by the Islamic Republic, which they believe violates a UN resolution. Senator Kelly Ayotte from New Hampshire and 35 other Republican senators made this request in a letter to President Barack Obama. The Islamic Republic of Iran announced on October 11 that it successfully tested a new generation of ground-to-ground missile named "Emad," claiming that "this missile can accurately strike and completely destroy intended targets." The U.S. and the UN have stated that this missile test violates UN Security Council Resolution 1929. Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee called on Thursday for no tolerance regarding violations of the nuclear agreement between Iran and the six world powers and other international commitments by Tehran. Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the committee, suggested that it would be better to halt this agreement than to have a "bad start." Corker referenced a list of Iranian actions, including the conviction of Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter imprisoned in Tehran, the sending of weapons to Syria and Yemen, and the violation of a UN resolution prohibiting missile tests by Iran, stating that Iran has not faced consequences for these actions. He asked, "Can anyone point out whether Iran has faced real consequences in this regard? We have no evidence that they (the Iranians) have paid any price for these actions."