By Francois Murphy

VIENNA/DUBAI – Iran announced on Wednesday that it was expanding underground uranium-enrichment. This comes after the 35 member nations of the U.N. watchdog passed a condemnatory resolution against Tehran.

Russia and China both opposed the United States of America, France, Germany and Britain’s resolution. They stated that they were “profoundly concerned” by the discovery of uranium at three sites not yet declared by Iran. The resolution also urges Tehran to cooperate with the watchdog without delay.

Iran is adamant about such resolutions. It had previously warned against retaliation and raised the possibility that further damage could be done to talks already in limbo on the renewal of the 2015 Iran nuclear accord.

Hours before the close-door vote at Headquarters of International Atomic Energy Agency was held, Iran declared a move diplomats believe to be either a shot across their bows in preparation for further drastic actions or a small early retaliation.

“So far, IAEA has been not only ungrateful for Iran’s cooperation but it has considered it to be a duty.” According to Iranian state TV, the authorities have directed that surveillance cameras from the Online Enrichment Monitor be closed down starting today. The machine measures enrichment in real time and is used for this purpose.

However, the IAEA still has not been able to access the data from such cameras and the OLEM over a period of more than a decade. The IAEA hopes that it can gain access to those data later, since they are still held by Iran.

According to one diplomat from Europe, the action was “a modest escalation of events in the big scheme of things” but could be seen as a warning shot ahead of resolution adoption.

ADVANCED CENTRIFUGES

The IAEA later informed members states, in a report seen Reuters, that Iran had begun installing a cascade or cluster of advanced IR-6 centifuges at the underground enrichment plant at Natanz. It was a long-standing plan which it hadn’t acted upon for several months.

Iran told the agency that they plan to add two more uranium-enriching cascades to the existing IR-1 centrifuges. They are far more powerful than those used in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

“Unfortunately, some Board members do not understand the urgency of the moment and are pushing for immature initiatives like anti #Iran resolution. #ViennaTalks clearly taught them nothing. “Pressuring Tehran entails escalate,” Russia’s IAEA mission tweeted prior to the vote.

Washington, under former President Donald Trump, withdrew in 2018 from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed new sanctions. Tehran has broken many of the restrictions it had placed on its nukes activities including enrichment. Tehran is improving its purity to as high as 60%, which puts it close to the 90% mark for weapons-grade.

Iran insists that its nuclear ambitions remain peaceful.

We are not taking the action to provoke a conflict for political ends. According to a statement by the U.S. to the board, it was not seeking such an escalation. It also stated that Iran’s decision to remove cameras from the premises would be “extremely regrettable” and anti-diplomatic.

(Additional reprting by Dubai Newsroom Editing By Mark Heinrich Mark Potter Editing Edited by Alex Richardson