IRAN has built a factory that can produce rotors for up to 60 centrifuges a day, the head of its atomic agency said on Wednesday, upping the stakes in a confrontation with Washington over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear work.

The announcement came a month after Supreme Lea­der Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he had ordered agencies to prepare to increase uranium enrichment capacity if a nuclear deal with world powers falls apart after Wash­­­­ington’s withdrawal from the pact.

Under the terms of the 2015 agreement, which was also signed by Russia, China, Britain, France and Germ­any, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exch­ange for sanctions relief. The other signatories have been scrambling to save the accord, arguing it offers the best way to stop Iran developing a nuclear bomb.

Iran has said it will wait to see what the other powers can do, but has signalled it is ready to get its enrichment activities back on track. It has regularly said its nuclear work is just for electricity generation and other peaceful projects.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Orga­nisation of Iran, said the new factory did not in itself break the terms of the agreement.

A spokesman for the Int­e­rnational Atomic Energy Ag­­e­­­­­­ncy (IAEA) said the organisation is aware of the anno­uncement but has “no comment.” “Instead of building this factory in the next seven or eight years, we built it during the negotiations but have not started it,” Salehi, said, according to state media.

The factory would have the capacity to build rotors for up to 60 IR-6 centrifuges per day, he added.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2018