Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is preparing to inaugurate the “Saghand uranium complex near the Central city of Ardakan and Shahid Rezayeenejad Yellow Cake production facility” on Tuesday to mark the regime’s “National Day of Nuclear Technology,” according to Iran’s Fars News Agency.

Western nations including the United States have urged Iran to stop enriching uranium to levels that would be needed to fuel a nuclear bomb.

“Uranium ores are extracted from the depth of 350 meters in Saghand mine near Ardakan and is then sent to Rezayeenejad complex to be converted into Yellow Cake,” Fars reported.

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokesman did not have immediate comment on the announcement, directing a reporter to the agency’s reports on Iran, which show that the regime has made consistent progress on the nuclear front.

The spokesman added, “Uranium processing is different than enrichment.”

The new processing plants would constitute a violation of multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions aimed at stopping such activities, according to Emanuele Ottolenghi, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“If Iran’s declared intention to inaugurate two new uranium processing facilities is true—and not just the usual bluster—then these steps represent not only a violation of UN Security Council Resolutions but also yet another Iranian provocation,” he said.

“For 10 years, an agreement has eluded nuclear negotiators. All the while, Iran has expanded its nuclear activities and edged ever closer to nuclear weapons,” Ottolenghi said. “The failure of talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, last week, only heightens the sense that diplomacy is at a dead end, and with Iran further expanding its nuclear activities, the point of no return may indeed be nearing.”

The opening of the facilities comes as Western nations failed to convince Iran to halt enrichment activities during multi-lateral talks last week.

Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief and top Iran negotiator, said talks failed to produce a major movement and that Iran and the West remain “far apart on substance,” according to the Guardian.

“Over two days of talks we had long and intensive discussions on the issues,” Ashton said following the talks, which took place in Kazakhstan. “It became clear that our positions remained far apart.”

“We have therefore agreed that all sides will go back to capitals to evaluate where we stand in the process,” Ashton said.

Iranian officials stated that the regime would not relinquish its “inalienable right” to enrich uranium.

“Accessing peaceful nuclear know-how is an indisputable right for Iran and the Iranian nation will defend its rights in all fields,” Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of Iran’s Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, was quoted as saying by state organ PressTV.

President Barack Obama recently declared that Iran is more than a year away from developing a nuclear weapon, progress that would cross a so-called “red line” for the administration.

Former CIA Director General Michael Hayden recently said he has begun to view a preemptive U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear sites as the “least worst” option to stop the regime.

Twenty percent-enriched uranium is a critical threshold in the debate over Iran’s nuclear program, which appears to continue unimpeded by Western sanctions. From this level, Iran could easily enrich uranium to the level required for nuclear warheads.

News outlets wrongly reported over the weekend that Iran has halted such enrichment.

“The 20 percent enrichment has not been and will not be stopped in Iran,” said Mohammad Hassan Asafari, a member of Iran’s legislature who sits on the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, according to Iran’s Mehr News Agency.

Asafari said that Iran would not stop enriching uranium to this level, but would be willing to “temporarily” purchase 20 percent enriched uranium from other sources if Western sanctions against the country are lifted.

Nuclear experts have warned that Iran could easily assemble a nuclear weapon using this uranium, which Iran has stockpiled in recent months.

Following a series of bilateral talks with the North Korean leadership, the regime “has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile launches, nuclear tests, and nuclear activities at Yongbyon, including uranium enrichment activities,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement.

Nuland indicated that this announcement is among the first steps the North Koreans must take if it is to put itself back on good terms with the West.

“The United States still has profound concerns regarding North Korean behavior across a wide range of areas, but today’s announcement reflects important, if limited, progress in addressing some of these,” Nuland added.

In return for halting its nuclear and military activities, the North Koreans will receive 240,000 metric tons of “nutritional assistance, along with the intensive monitoring required for the delivery of such assistance,” according to the State Department. Envoys from both countries will finalize the details of the deal in the coming days.

During talks earlier this month, U.S. and North Korean officials also agreed to open up cultural communication between the two countries. This includes the increase in “people-to-people exchanges, including in the areas of culture, education, and sports,” the State Department said.