For iodine, however, oxidising conditions must be used in order to perform iodination. Because iodination is a reversible process, the products have to be removed from the reaction medium in order to drive the reaction forward, see Le Chatelier's principle. This can be done by conducting the reaction in the presence of an oxidising agent that oxidises HI to I2, thus removing HI from the reaction and generating more iodine that can further react. The reaction steps involved in iodination are the following: