Iran is planning to break ground on a new research reactor at the Isfahan nuclear site, the state-run IRNA news agency cited the country's nuclear chief as saying.
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Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Mohammad Eslami announced Wednesday that the construction of the new reactor will begin in the coming weeks.
Speaking during a visit to the site's Uranium Conversion Facility, Eslami said the new reactor will "complete the chain of nuclear-powered electricity production" in Iran.
Tehran's defiant move comes as the Vienna nuclear talks falter. Reiterating past claims by Iran, Eslami argued that the Islamic republic's nuclear program was peaceful and that the West's allegations that it has military dimensions were false.
"These allegations against Iran ... are made with the aim of wasting time" in the negotiations, he remarked.
News of the new reactor broke against the backdrop of a statement by Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who according to state media told European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell that "Iran welcomes the continuation of diplomacy and negotiations."
Amirabdollahian and Borrell spoke by telephone, the report said.
"The United States always states that it wants an agreement, so this approach should be seen in the agreement and in practice," Amirabdollahian added. It was not immediately clear what he meant.
Borrell on Tuesday said he had proposed a new draft text to revive the 2015 deal under which Iran curbed its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions. read more
Then-US President Donald Trump reneged on the deal in 2018 and reimposed US sanctions, prompting Iran to violate the deal's nuclear limits.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal aimed to make it harder for Iran to amass the fissile material for a nuclear weapon, an ambition Iran has long denied, saying its atomic program was for peaceful purposes.
On Tuesday, the State Department said it was reviewing Borrell's proposal and would respond to the EU.
Borrell on Tuesday said the deal on the table reflected "the determination of all ... to ensure its sustainability, including the commitment of President Joe Biden and US assurances in this regard."
He appeared to refer to Biden's commitment, described in an October 2021 White House statement, "to return the US to full compliance with the JCPOA and to stay in full compliance, so long as Iran does the same."
Borrell later asserted that the latest version of a nuclear deal presented by world powers to Iran is the best one possible in an opinion piece carried by the Financial Times.
"After 15 months of intense, constructive negotiations in Vienna and countless interactions with the participants and the US, I have concluded that the space for additional significant compromises has been exhausted. I have now put on the table a text that addresses, in precise detail, the sanctions lifting as well as the nuclear steps needed to restore" the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement, Borrell said.
"This text represents the best possible deal that I, as facilitator of the negotiations, see as feasible. It is not a perfect agreement, but it addresses all essential elements and includes hard-won compromises by all sides," he continued.
Borrell urged Iran to make the "swift" political decision to accept the terms, warning that otherwise "we risk a dangerous nuclear crisis."
The opinion piece comes against the backdrop of comments made earlier this month by US special envoy for Iran Robert Malley, who said that Tehran was just "a matter of weeks" away from having enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon, and that recent talks geared towards reviving the JCPOA were "more than a little bit of a wasted occasion."
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Tuesday that Jerusalem has the capability to "seriously harm" Iran's nuclear program. "We are very unsatisfied with the [prospective] agreement, which would be a bad agreement because it would be a temporary delay," he said.
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