Iran doubles advanced centrifuges in blow to nuke deal

TEHRAN

Iran has doubled the number of advanced centrifuges, enhancing the country's capacity to enrich uranium, the head of its nuclear program said Monday.

"We have installed 15 new-generation centrifuges in the past two months which is a very big achievement," Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said in an interview with the state television.

"Now, our capacity (to produce uranium) has reached 8,660 SWU (Separate Work Units) and we could produce nearly 450g of uranium a day before the third step (of the modification of Iran's nuclear deal undertakings) and now it has increased to over 5,000g daily," he said.

Salehi said Tehran has launched a chain of 30 IR6 centrifuges, adding that at present Iran has nearly 60 IR6 centrifuge machines which can produce a sum of 600 SWUs.

Iran started to cut its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal in a retaliatory move following the U.S. unilateral decision to withdraw from the agreement between Tehran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and the EU.

The U.S. has since embarked upon a diplomatic and economic campaign to ramp up pressure on Iran to force it to renegotiate the agreement.

The deal allows Iran to reduce its commitments in case of other parties' breaches. Tehran insists the EU to act more actively regarding the implementation of its part of obligations, saying it will return to the full compliance with the deal once the EU has nullified the U.S. sanctions.

*Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from