TEHRAN - Iran will begin the enrichment of uranium at its Fordow facility and will install new nuclear equipment at its Natanz plant if the 2015 nuclear agreement is nixed, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has affirmed.

The fate of the 2015 nuclear deal is unclear after the United States withdrew from it. The other signatory nations - Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France - are trying to salvage the accord, which imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for a lifting of economic sanctions.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, the AEOI spokesman, said in an interview with the Young Journalists’ Club published on Wednesday that nuclear work will accelerate on the orders of the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei if the remaining parties fail to keep the agreement alive. 

He did not specify what kind of new equipment might be installed at Natanz.

“Currently the Supreme Leader has ordered that the programs be carried out within the parameters of the nuclear deal,” Kamalvandi stated.

“And when he gives the order we will announce the programs for operating outside of the nuclear deal for reviving Fordow,” he added.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the AEOI chief, announced last week that Iran had begun work on a facility to construct advanced centrifuges at Natanz.

Kamalvandi accused the United States and other Western countries of applying double standards by opposing Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, while accepting the nuclear arms program of Tehran’s foe Israel.

“The West doesn’t criticize the Zionist regime and have even helped them,” Kamalvandi lamented, adding, “Without the help of the West and America this regime could never have obtained nuclear weapons.”

SP/PA