On Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani elaborated on his country’s recent announcement that it will scale back some of the commitments it made under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Rouhani stated that Iran will stop selling enriched uranium and heavy water to other countries, as a result of which the country’s stockpiles should start exceeding the caps specified in the agreement.
In addition, the president warned that the current signatories to the deal, namely Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, have 60 days to fulfill their promise of protecting Iran’s finance and oil sectors from US sanctions. If they fail to do so, Iran will resume enriching high level uranium. Rouhani stressed that the actions he announced are in line with the agreement and that Iran is willing to negotiate with the signatories, although he mentioned a “narrowing window” for saving the accord.
Tensions between the US and Iran have dramatically increased since the US abandoned the nuclear deal last year and reimposed sanctions on the country. The situation further escalated in recent weeks after the US increased sanctions and designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization.
Read more: Iran rolls back pledges under nuclear pact abandoned by Washington