Iran will install three cascades of advanced IR-2m centrifuges in an underground Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Iran has already moved one cascade of 174 IR-2m centrifuges to this facility and is using that cascade to enrich uranium alongside the 5,060 IR-1 centrifuges that have been enriching uranium at the plant for years. Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran is supposed to use only the less efficient IR-1 centrifuge for the production of enriched uranium.
News Briefs
December 2, 2020
Iran passed a law requiring the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to resume enriching uranium to the level of 20 percent, in response to the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a top scientist in Iran's nuclear program. The law also compels Iran to expel inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) within two months unless the United States lifts sanctions on Iran's financial and petroleum sectors. The law was subsequently ratified by Iran's Guardian Council. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani criticized the law, which he described as "damaging for diplomacy." The production of higher levels of enrichment will require Iran to adjust the infrastructure at its Natanz nuclear facility.
-- The New York Times
December 1, 2020
Citing Iraqi military sources, Lebanese and Saudi news agencies reported that a drone strike killed Muslim Shahdan, a senior commander in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The reports suggest that three operatives working alongside Shahdan also died in the strike, which took place along the border between Iraq and Syria. According to the reports, Shahdan's vehicle was carrying weapons from Iraq to Syria.
-- The Times of Israel
December 1, 2020
German's Bundesbank has kept a multi-billion-euro deposit facility open for Iranian banks, including two that were sanctioned by the United States in October, in an effort to push back against broad U.S. financial sanctions against Iran imposed that month. In a joint letter dated October 26, diplomats from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom argued that the new sanctions could have an adverse effect on humanitarian aid to Iran by making it "prohibitively expensive" for Iranians to purchase food and medicine. At the beginning of 2020, the Bundesbank held 3.8 billion euros in deposits for five Iranian banks, including Bank Melli.
-- Reuters
November 30, 2020
Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, accused Israel's intelligence agency of orchestrating the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Fakhrizadeh died of gunshot wounds sustained during an ambush while his car was driving on a highway north of Tehran. Shamkhani also linked the attack to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a Paris-based coalition of Iranian dissidents. According to Shamkhani, Mossad and the NCRI conducted the operation "remotely" by relying on unspecified "electronic devices." Iranian news agencies have reported that the assassination was carried out using a remote-control machine gun as well as by weapons "controlled by satellite."
-- Reuters
November 19, 2020
The Israeli military claims Unit 840 of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) is responsible for planting explosives on the border between Israel and Syria. In response, Israel this week struck targets around Damascus connected to the IRGC and to divisions of the Syrian military that cooperate with Iranian forces. Israeli officials also blame Unit 840 for an earlier attempt by four armed men to plant explosives in an unmanned outpost on the Syrian border.
-- The Times of Israel
November 18, 2020
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports that Iran has begun feeding uranium gas into a cascade of 174 advanced IR-2m centrifuges installed in an underground plant at the Natanz site. The action violates an international agreement on Iran's nuclear program reached in 2015, which limits Iran to using only IR-1 centrifuges in the underground plant.
-- Reuters
November 12, 2020
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran had stockpiled 2,442.9 kilograms of enriched uranium, 12 times the limit set by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The IAEA further observed that Iran was continuing to enrich uranium to 4.5 percent, a breach of the 3.67 percent limit set by the JCPOA. The Agency is still analyzing environmental samples taken from two former nuclear sites and deems "not credible" Iran's explanation for the presence of nuclear material found at a previously undeclared site.
-- British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
November 11, 2020
Iran has transported a first cascade of advanced IR-2m centrifuges from an above-ground facility at Natanz to an underground plant at the site, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The transfer violates the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which limits Iran to operating only first-generation IR-1 centrifuges in the underground portion of Natanz. The cascade is installed and connected but has not been fed with uranium hexafluoride gas. Iran has also begun installing a cascade of IR-4 centrifuges, and plans to install a cascade of IR-6 centrifuges in the underground plant.
-- Reuters
November 7, 2020
During a visit to Venezuela, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif asserted that military cooperation with Venezuela would continue despite U.S. economic sanctions.
-- Middle East Monitor