Iran has begun production of 60% enriched uranium at its Fordow plant, another deviation from its commitments following a critical resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), AFP reported.

Last year, Iran already announced that it had begun producing uranium enriched to 60% at the Natang site (center), thus approaching the 90% percent required to produce an atomic bomb.

That 60 percent threshold is well above the 3.67 percent threshold set by the 2015 deal between Tehran and major powers to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Iran has agreed to freeze uranium enrichment activities at the underground Fordo plant, located 180 kilometers south of Tehran. However, the site was rebuilt in 2019 and recently redesigned for greater efficiency.

“The production of 60% enriched uranium at Fordo started on Monday,” Isna news agency quoted the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami, as saying on Tuesday.

“I said that political pressure does not change anything and that the adoption of a resolution (at the IAEA) will provoke a serious response” from Iran, he added.

The IAEA confirmed the new work at Fordo and “informs Iran of its intention to increase the frequency and intensity of inspection activities,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement to AFP.

“Iran also plans to significantly increase production of low-enriched uranium” to 20 percent “at Fordo,” the UN body added, and set up a “second production facility” in Natang.