Tehran — Iran will receive the final part of a 149-tonne shipment of uranium from Russia as part of its nuclear deal with world powers, it was announced on Monday.
“The first shipment arrived on January 26 by plane and the last will arrive tomorrow, Tuesday,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, according to Fars news agency.
Under the nuclear deal signed with world powers in July 2015, Iran has the right to enrich uranium to a level of 3.5 percent and sell it abroad, as part of efforts to develop its civilian nuclear program.
Nuclear weapons require uranium enriched to around 80 percent.
With the latest shipment, which was authorized by the United States and the other five signatories to the deal, Salehi said Iran has imported 359 tonnes of concentrated uranium, also known as yellow cake, since the nuclear deal came into effect in January 2016.
Under the deal, Iran is allowed to run around 5,000 “IR-1” centrifuges and has been testing more advanced models that can produce greater quantities of enriched uranium — all under the strict supervision of the UN atomic agency.
Last month, Iranian officials said they had successfully tested the latest-generation IR-8 centrifuge, which has a capacity 20 times the IR-1, with uranium gas.
On Saturday Iran held a military exercise to test its missile and radar systems, a day after US President Donald Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on Tehran for a recent ballistic missile test.
The United States sanctioned 13 individuals and 12 entities related to Iran’s missile programme and Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn said the United States was putting Iran on notice over its “destabilizing activity”.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards website said that the aim of the military exercise in Semnan province was to “showcase the power of Iran’s revolution and to dismiss the sanctions.”
Iran has one of the Middle East’s largest missile programs and held a similar exercise in December to showcase its defence systems, including radars, anti-missile defense units, and short and medium-range missiles.
Tehran confirmed on Wednesday that it had test-fired a new ballistic missile, but said the test did not breach the Islamic Republic’s nuclear agreement with world powers or a UN Security Council resolution endorsing the pact.
Iran has test-fired several ballistic missiles since the nuclear deal in 2015, but the latest test was the first since Trump entered the White House.
Trump said during his election campaign that he would stop Iran’s missile program.
The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting on Tuesday and recommended the missile testing be studied at committee level. The new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, called the test “unacceptable”.
The Security Council resolution was adopted to buttress the deal under which Iran curbed its nuclear activities to allay concerns they could be used to develop atomic bombs, in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
The resolution urged Tehran to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons. Critics say the resolution’s language does not make this obligatory.
