Iran seeks boosting uranium enrichment

Iran's atomic energy agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi on Tuesday said Iran will inform the United Nations (UN) nuclear watchdog in Vienna of its plan to increase the country's uranium enrichment capacity.

This will be done within the limits of the nuclear agreement.

Kamalvandi, in a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said, "Iran will announce that the process of increasing the capacity to produce ... UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) ... will start on Tuesday," Al Jazeera quoted.

On Monday, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei asked the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to prepare for the enrichment of uranium up to a level of 190,000 SWU (separative work units).

The measures that Tehran is taking will not violate the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Khamenei said.

Khamenei also said Iran will not tolerate being under sanctions, while limited in the nuclear field.

On May 8, US President Donald Trump announced the Washington withdrawal from the JCPOA or the Iran nuclear deal which limited the country's uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief.

The Iran nuclear deal was signed between six countries in 2015 - Iran, US, Britain, Germany, Russia, France and China for lifting economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limitations to the country's nuclear programme.