Iran said exporting uranium stockpile to Russia in coming days
Rouhani says Tehran will meet all obligations needed to lift sanctions in next two weeks
Iran is preparing to export the majority of its stockpile of enriched uranium to Russia in the coming days as part of its efforts to meet the terms of the July 14 agreement with world powers, Reuters reported Saturday, citing the head of the Islamic republic’s Atomic Energy Organization.
“In the next few days around nine tonnes of Iran’s enriched uranium will be exported to Russia,” Ali Akbar Salehi said, according to Reuters.
The deal involving the United States, Iran and five other world powers would curb Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for an end to strict sanctions on Tehran, giving it access to billions in frozen assets and oil revenue.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that the country would carry out its remaining obligations in the next two weeks to pave the way for the lifting of sanctions in January. He said Iran would now dismantle some nuclear centrifuges and ship out a major portion of its stockpile of enriched uranium.
Stephen Mull, the US State Department’s lead coordinator for implementation of the deal, said Wednesday that Iran has begun dismantling its uranium enrichment system by removing thousands of centrifuges and transferring them into a storage facility that will be monitored by international nuclear inspectors.
“It has already removed more than 5,000 of its machines and is likely to move quickly to remove the rest in the coming days,” Mull said.
He said Iran is reducing its stockpile of various forms of enriched uranium to no more than 300 kilograms of material enriched up to 3.67 percent.
“It will accomplish this primarily by shipping a significant amount of such material outside Iran, while also diluting the remaining excess to the level of natural uranium or below,” Mull said. “Commercial contracts are in place for Iran to ship its enriched uranium stockpiles to Russia. We expect that this material — approximately 25,000 pounds of material enriched up to 20 percent low-enriched uranium — could leave Iran in the coming weeks.”
