Iran’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday it would implement, in 60 days, its third deliberate violation of the nuclear deal if the remaining parties do not find ways to counter U.S. sanctions against Tehran.
“The West should not criticise the legitimate decisions of Iran, but find practical solutions to convince us to stay in the deal,’’ Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abbas Mussawi, said.
Mussawi added that a third phase of violation would begin in September if they failed to do so.
Last week, Tehran said it had exceeded a stock limit of 300 kilogrammes on its low-enriched uranium production.
On Sunday, it raised its uranium enrichment level beyond the 3.67-per-cent threshold agreed under the 2015 accord.
The third phase would involve reversing the reconfiguration of a heavy-water reactor so it is once again capable of producing plutonium.
President Donald Trump in 2018 pulled the U.S. out of the accord and began imposing a “maximum pressure” campaign of strict sanctions on Tehran, over the objections of his European allies.
The remaining powers in the agreement, including Britain, France and Germany have sought to keep it alive by developing a money transaction system known as Instex that allows Iran to circumvent U.S. sanctions and continue doing business with international partners.
Uranium needs to be enriched to 90 per cent for a nuclear weapon to be built, but getting from 20 to 90 per cent is considered to be a relatively quick process.
Iran has said multiple times that even if the Islamic Republic does pull out of the nuclear agreement, the country has no intention of developing nuclear weapons.
dpa/NAN
