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Iran will resume high-level enrichment of uranium if world powers did not keep their promises under a 2015 nuclear agreement, President Hassan Rouhani has said on Wednesday, responding to the U.S. withdrawal from the deal a year ago.
In a speech on national television, Rouhani said the UK, France, Germany, China and Russia had 60 days to come good on their promise to protect Iran's oil and banking sectors from US sanctions after Donald Trump pulled out of the deal a year ago.
Iran told ambassadors from the signatory countries that failure to comply would result in it rolling back some of its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.
Among the measures, Rouhani said Tehran will begin keeping excess uranium and heavy water from its nuclear programme.
Rouhani's address to the nation came on the anniversary of President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the atomic accord.
Mr Rouhani said Iran wanted to negotiate new terms with remaining partners in the deal, but acknowledged that the situation was dire.
'This surgery is to save the (deal), not destroy it,' he said.
The 2015 deal saw sanctions on Iran lifted in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme. After the US withdrew from the accord it restored crippling sanctions on Iran, exacerbating a severe economic crisis.
'If the five countries join negotiations and help Iran to reach its benefits in the field of oil and banking, Iran will return to its commitments according to the nuclear deal,' Mr Rouhani said.
There was no immediate response from the US. The White House said on Sunday that it would dispatch an aircraft carrier and a bomber wing to the Persian Gulf over what it described as a new threat from Tehran.
Under terms of the deal, Iran can keep a stockpile of no more than 300kg of low-enriched uranium, compared with 10,000kg of higher-enriched uranium it once had.
The US last week ended deals allowing Iran to exchange its enriched uranium for unrefined yellowcake uranium with Russia, as well as it being able to sell its heavy water to Oman.
Washington has also ended waivers for nations buying Iranian crude oil, a key source of revenue for Tehran.
Currently, the accord limits Iran to enriching uranium to 3.67 per cent, which can fuel a commercial nuclear power plant.
Weapons-grade uranium needs to be enriched to around 90 per cent. However, once a country enriches uranium to around 20 per cent, scientists say the time needed to reach 90 per cent is halved.
Iran has previously enriched to 20 per cent.
