Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (File)
UPDATED, 0800:
Iran has begun enriching uranium with a more advanced centrifuge.
The International Atomic Energy Agency finds, in its latest inspections report, that Tehran began feeding uranium hexaflouride to 174 IR-4 centrifuges at its underground Natanz complex.
The installation breaches the 2015 nuclear deal with the 5+1 Powers, which limited Iran to its existing IR-1 centrifuges.
But as the Rouhani Government suspended adherence to deal provisions, following the Trump Administration’s imposition of comprehensive sanctions, Iran began enriching underground with IR-2m centrifuges and moved three cascades of advanced models from the above-ground plant to the below-ground Fuel Enrichment Plant.