TEHRAN — In a tweet on Friday, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the parliament, congratulated the Iranian nation on enrichment of uranium to 60% purity.

At 00:40 midnight on Friday, the young Iranian scientists were able to enrich uranium to 60 percent purity with their beliefs in God, the parliament speaker stated. 

He congratulated the Iranian nation, describing the will of the Iranian nation as “miraculous”. 

The senior lawmaker pointed out that the country will defy all conspiracies. 

President Hassan Rouhani told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the decision to enrich uranium to the level of 60 percent is a response to sabotage at the Natanz nuclear facility.  Rouhani called the sabotage attack “mischievous”.

We own 9 grams of 60% uranium, says Salehi

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed that he let Ghalibaf know at the midnight on Friday that Iran now owns 60% enriched uranium. 

Speaking to state TV on Friday, Salehi said, "The rate of production of 60% enriched uranium is 9 grams per hour. Of course, 20% uranium will also be produced at the same time."

he went on to deny the rumors surrounding contamination at the Natanaz nuclear site, stating, "We would not allow our colleagues to work in Natanz if there was contamination. If there had been contamination in Natanz, the inspectors would not have visited it, and based on that, we completely deny this."

He also noted that Iran is now capable of producing enriched uranium at any rate.

"We can produce uranium with any (level of) enrichment we want, instantaneously and whenever we want."

He went on to elaborate on the enrichment process, describing it as a big, technical development. "This is a very big technical development that our colleagues in the Atomic Energy Organization (of Iran) are doing. This means that we produce both 60% enriched uranium and 20% uranium simultaneously, and these optimizations will be completed within the next day or two."

On Tuesday, Abbas Araghchi, the top Iranian negotiator in the Vienna talks, told the press that Iran will start enriching uranium to up to 60%.

Salehi also confirmed the announcement that experts have produced uranium to the purity of 60 percent at the Natanz facility. 

In an interview with ISNA on Wednesday, the AEOI chief told ISNA that the 60% enriched uranium would be used to produce various types of radiopharmaceuticals. 

SA/PA