Iran will take a third step to reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarid said on Saturday, August 3.
"The third step in reducing commitments to (the nuclear deal) will be implemented in the current situation," parliament’s news agency ICANA quoted him as saying.
"We have said that if (the deal) is not completely implemented by others then we will also implement it in the same incomplete manner. And, of course, all of our actions have been within the framework of (the deal)."
Iran announced in May that it will gradually reduce its commitments under JCPOA as long as others are not fully honoring their commitments. Tehran is demanding that the three European signatories of the deal; the United Kingdom, France and Germany ignore U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran and engage in trade and banking.
Iran has already started both enriching more and higher purity uranium not allowed under the deal.
Tehran's decision to reduce its commitments came after Washington put a total ban on its oil exports in early May. The U.S. sanctions are aimed at forcing Iran to renegotiate the 2015 agreement, curtail its missile program and change its interventionist policies in the Middle East.
Two days earlier, Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani had sounded optimistic saying that negotiations with other signatories of the agreement might soon give positive results.
With reporting by Reuters