Tehran - (AFP) - Iran has started building a new nuclear power plant in Khuzestan province in the southwest of the country, according to the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) on Saturday.

And the head of the organization, Muhammad Islami, announced in remarks broadcast by state television the start of construction of the Karun nuclear power plant with a capacity of 300 megawatts in the Darkhvin region in Khuzestan.

He added that the construction of the station will take seven years and is expected to cost between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
Islami said that "a French company was initially scheduled to build" this station, but the company reneged on its "commitments" after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"Later, other countries avoided cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran, because of the sanctions," he added.

Under the international agreement on the Iranian nuclear deal concluded in 2015, Iran agreed to stop operating the Fordow nuclear facility and limit its enrichment of uranium to the threshold of 3.67%, as part of a package of restrictions imposed on its nuclear activities aimed at preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran has repeatedly denied that it is seeking to develop an atomic bomb.

The agreement allowed the lifting of many sanctions that were imposed on the Islamic Republic, in return for reducing its nuclear activities and ensuring the peacefulness of its program.

However, the effects of the agreement have almost disappeared since former US President Donald Trump decided to unilaterally withdraw his country from the agreement in 2018 and re-impose harsh sanctions on Iran.

Since then, Iran has reopened the Fordow plant and last month began producing 60% enriched uranium there.

Iran and the parties still party to the agreement, with the coordination of the European Union and the auspices of the United Nations, and with the indirect participation of the United States, began talks to revive the agreement in April 2021.

After being suspended several times, it seemed about two months ago that an agreement would see the light, before it faltered again due to points of divergence between Washington and Tehran.