Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday announcing that Moscow will continue its close cooperation with Iran on the Fordow reconfiguration.

The statement also strongly condemned the United States’ decision to drop a sanctions waiver related to Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility and believes the decision violates U.S. international commitments.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that the U.S. will no longer waive sanctions related to the Fordow nuclear plant after Tehran resumed uranium enrichment at the site more than a year after Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement.

“The right amount of uranium enrichment for the world’s largest state sponsor of terror is zero ... There is no legitimate reason for Iran to resume enrichment at this previously clandestine site,” Reuters quoted Pompeo as saying.

Earlier this month, Iran started to inject uranium gas into centrifuges at Fordow under the supervision of inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog, officially going on with the fourth step since it began responding to Washington’s abandonment of the nuclear deal and an inaction by the remaining parties, including Europeans, to shield Iran from sanctions.

Iran took the first step to scale down nuclear commitments on May 8.  The other two steps were taken two months later each. 

In the first step, Iran removed cap on its stockpile of nuclear enrichment which had been limited to 300 kilograms. In the second, Iran started enriching uranium beyond 3.67 percent. And in the third, Iran removed ban on nuclear research and development.

NA/PA