Iran says it will resume enrichment ‘on day deal is signed’

Less than 24 hours after US President Obama said Iran would be able to reduce breakout time to a bomb “to almost zero” after 13 years under an agreement with the West, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the Islamic Republic will start enriching uranium via IR-8 centrifuges, the most advanced type, as soon as the deal is signed.

The IR-8 is an Iranian development of the IR-1, which in itself is the Iranian version of a device designed by Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan.

If the report by the Fars News Agency is accurate, it means Tehran would make a mockery of the world powers’ much-hailed framework agreement, since such a move clearly breaches the US-published terms of the deal, and would dramatically accelerate Iran’s potential progress to the bomb.

Read the full report here.