Uranium Enrichment to 20% Purity Initiated at Fordow

Iran’s government spokesman said on Monday the process of producing 20%-purity enriched uranium had just started at the Fordow nuclear facility. 
“The process of injecting uranium gas into centrifuges has just been initiated and the first product of uranium hexafluoride will be available within hours,” Ali Rabiei said, according to the government’s news website.
He said the whole operations have been carried out after the implementation of preliminary measures such as informing the International Atomic Energy Agency and submitting the information questionnaire in accordance with the country’s Safeguards Agreement. 
Iran informed IAEA in a letter last week that it intends to enrich uranium to up to 20% purity based on a recent law passed by the Iranian Parliament. 
Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed between Iran and the world powers in 2015, the level of purity to which Iran can enrich uranium has been capped at 3.67%, besides nuclear restrictions.  
The deal had promised the lifting of international sanctions in return for Iran’s nuclear curbs, but the United States withdrew from the agreement unilaterally in 2018 and reinstated sweeping sanctions on Tehran, which the European parties failed to compensate the economic benefits promised to Iran under the deal.  
In 2019, Iran announced that it was scaling down its commitments, but in reversible steps, since its JCPOA benefits have been jeopardized almost completely.         
It, therefore, exceeded the enrichment limit as part of the remedial measures, but only went up to 4.5%, well short of the 20% it had achieved before the deal.
The deal had also banned enrichment at the underground Fordow site, but Tehran again made the facility operational. 

Presidential Order Issued 

The Iranian Parliament, however, passed a law last month that called on the government to take further steps beyond the deal’s restrictions following the assassination of the country’s top nuclear scientist in late November 2020, which Iran blames on Israel. 
The legislation, dubbed Strategic Action Plan to Lift Sanctions, outlines a step-by-step strategy for Iran to force the West into reconsidering its sanctions policy against Iran by increasing nuclear activities. It involves raising enrichment levels to 20% among other nuclear measures to be taken within a timeframe, unless JPCOA benefits are revived before the deadline.  
Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, had earlier said the law’s implementation needed the government’s executive regulations and a presidential order. 
Rabiei said President Hassan Rouhani has issued the executive order.
“In a letter to First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri last week, the president issued the required order for the allocation of part of the budget for this law in 1399 [the current Iranian year that ends on March 20],” he said. 
The government initially expressed its opposition to the bill, arguing that it would further complicate the situation surrounding the nuclear deal, but finally agreed to implement it after it became law. 
“The government’s position about this legislation has been explicitly declared. Nevertheless, the administration feels duty-bound to observe the law,” Rabiei said.