Under the JCPOA, the Islamic Republic agreed to severe limitations on their uranium supply, as well as not using more advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
By AARON REICHIranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during Kuala Lumpur Summit in Malaysia(photo credit: REUTERS/LIM HUEY TENG)
In what is certainly a landmark move in violating the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran's President Hassan Rouhani announced the development of new advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges, state news agency IRNA reported.The announcement came Wednesday at a meeting in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpar, with Iranian expats. At the meeting, Rouhani said that the advanced F-9 centrifuges will be used to create nuclear power by converting uranium into fuel, and denied any intention to make nuclear weaponry.Under the JCPOA, the Islamic Republic agreed to severe limitations on their uranium supply, as well as not using more advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment. In return for these and other restrictions, strict international sanctions would be lifted. The agreement, also known as the Iran Deal, was signed by the US, the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China.However, US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal in 2018, citing a weakness in enforcement and the deal's inability to curb the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program."The fact is, this was a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made," the president said at the time, adding: "At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction."Ever since, the US has passed severe sanctions on Iran, prompting Iran to begin breaching the deal, which it has done periodically.
