During a ceremony held on Monday to mark Iran's National Day of Nuclear Technology, President Hassan Rouhani issued an order to transfer yellowcake produced in the Ardakan factory, located in the central province of Yazd, to a uranium conversion facility in Isfahan.
According to the Tehran Times, the uranium from which the yellowcake was derived was originally extracted from the Saghand mine, also located in Yazd. The daily also stated that this is the first time the Iranian government makes a decision like this since it agreed to curb its nuclear activity in 2015 in exchange for the removal of nuclear sanctions.
At the event, the Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, unveiled the nation's latest nuclear technological developments, which add up to 83 projects that include centrifuges and nuclear medicine.
Salehi said that, despite the large number of projects, the country is still complying with its obligation to scale back nuclear pursuits, as contemplated in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action it signed in Vienna three years ago together with China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States plus Germany, and the European Union.
However, Salehi is quoted as saying that is not acceptable that one side takes all the responsibility for implementing the deal and the other side refrains from fulfilling its legal commitments.
According to Reuters, Rouhani added to the former statement that Donald Trump will regret it if he pulls out of the nuclear deal. Back in January, Trump asked the rest of the signatories to "fix the terrible flaws" of the agreement by May 12 or risk a U.S. withdraw and a reinstatement of the sanctions against Tehran.
"Iran will not violate the nuclear deal, but if the United States withdraws from the deal, they will surely regret it. Our response will be stronger than what they imagine and they would see that within a week," Rouhani is quoted as saying.
Earlier today, the spokesman of the Iran Atomic Energy Agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, told the state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency that the country could ramp its uranium enrichment to 20 per cent in two days if it wanted to.