TEHRAN – An Iranian lawmaker has said that Tehran’s decision to feed uranium gas into advanced centrifuges has put the country in a position of strength in the Vienna talks. 

The lawmaker, Javad Karimi Quddousi, who is a member of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, told Iran’s state news agency IRNA that the Raisi administration’s move to feed uranium gas into advanced centrifuges was aimed at achieving nuclear progress and increased Iran’s power.

Underlining that sanctions against Iran should not go unanswered, he said, “Iran's actions in injecting gas into new and advanced generation centrifuges put the negotiating team in Vienna in a position of strength. The government is pursuing the interests of the Iranian nation with all its might.”

The lawmaker referred to Iran’s feeding gas into centrifuges and said, “The action taken by the revolutionary government in the direction of nuclear progress is a minimal action that increased the strength and dignity of the Iranian nation.”

He said that all of Iran's nuclear activities are conducted within the framework of the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and under the Additional Protocol. 

Quddousi noted, “According to the opinion of the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), in the current situation, Iran has the ability to produce a nuclear bomb, but this issue is not defined in the foreign policy strategy of the Islamic Republic.”

He noted, “The doctrine of the Islamic Republic will not lead to the production of nuclear bombs, and Iran's plan is to use nuclear technology peacefully.”

0n August 1, Iran started injecting hexafluoride gas into 500 new advanced IR-6 centrifuges. Behrouz Kamalvandi, the AEOI spokesman, said that was in line with the plan to make 190,000 SWUs (separative work units) operational in the nuclear industry.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said the move was in response to the new U.S. coercive actions against the Islamic Republic.

The United States imposed sanctions on foreign firms allegedly for doing business with Iran hours before the Iranian move. The U.S. Treasury and the U.S. State Departments imposed sanctions on a total of six companies, four based in Hong Kong, one in Singapore, and one in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in actions that were announced in separate statements.

Amir Abdollahian called the new U.S. sanctions moves “irrational measures”.

“These are irrational measures and this is an ineffective sanctionomania by Joe Biden, Blinken and Robert Malley. They themselves mentioned that Trump's maximum pressure campaign has failed. Even Borrell himself mentioned the failure of Trump's maximum pressure campaign against Iran in a recent article and then put forward his own summarized ideas, but again we are witnessing the madness of imposing sanctions, which of course is only a show and has no tangible effect,” the foreign minister remarked.

“I would like to point out that in response to this American action, Iran injected hexafluoride gas into hundreds of new generation centrifuges from Monday (August 1) based on the decision that was made,” he underlined.

On Monday, Iran and its negotiating partners concluded another round of talks in Vienna. After the talks, a senior Iranian foreign ministry official said, “Over the past 4 days, intensive talks were held over a few remaining issues to make sure that Iran’s demands will be met and its worries will be removed. During the negotiations, we shared our views with the other parties and relative progress was made regarding some issues.”

The talks started on Thursday and lasted until Monday.

 “Given the discussions in the past 5 days, on Monday, Enrique Mora, the coordinator of the Vienna talks, presented some ideas regarding the remaining issues to all parties. Upon receiving those ideas, we responded to him and offered our preliminary observation. But naturally, such issues need to be studied thoroughly and we will give our final response to the coordinator of the Vienna talks and other sides. There is no doubt that the fundamental principle for us is to protect the rights of the Iranian people and fulfill their interests.”

The ministry official concluded, “The serious concern of Iran’s negotiating team is to achieve the rights of the Iranian people, fulfill their interests, guarantee the sustainable implementation by the other side of its commitments, and prevent the U.S. from repeating illegal acts.”