AP, Jakarta :
Iran’s Foreign Minister has defended his country’s plan to take further steps away from a 2015 nuclear deal if Europe fails to provide solution on reviving it.
Mohammad Javad Zarif was speaking Friday at a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart in Jakarta.
Zarif did not say what exact steps his country will take as a deadline it gave Europeans to save the deal is to expire on Friday.
He said the measures that his country has taken are in response to U.S. sanctions, which he called economic terrorism.
The 2015 deal with world powers has steadily unraveled following President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the U.S. from the accord last year.
Meanwhile, mysterious oil tanker attacks struck near the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks, attacks that the U.S. blames on Iran. Tehran denies it was involved.
Iran also shot down a U.S. military surveillance drone and seized oil tankers as America deployed nuclear-capable B-52 bombers, advanced fighter jets and more troops to the region.
The U.S. has sought to seize an Iranian oil tanker, the Adrian Darya-1, now thought by analysts to be off the Syrian coast despite a pledge by Tehran that its cargo wasn’t bound there.
In his speech late Wednesday, Rouhani said Tehran would soon begin work on research and development of “all kinds” of centrifuges that enrich uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas.
Iran has begun breaking limits of the deal, such as just creeping beyond its 3.67%-enrichment limit and its stockpile rules. Using advanced centrifuges speeds up enrichment and Iranian officials already have raised the idea of enriching to 20% – a small technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Iran long has maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and denies it seeks an atomic bomb. However, Western nations have pointed to previous Iranian research into a weapons program that U.N. experts say largely ended in 2003.
France in recent days had pushed the idea of offering Iran a $15 billion credit to sell its oil, though details remain unclear and it appeared the deal wouldn’t come through before Iran’s deadline Friday.
That appears to show Iran trying to resort to its own maximum pressure campaign through the nuclear program to get what it wants, said Henry Rome, an analyst for the Eurasia Group.
“Iran’s plan appears to be provocative but reversible,” Rome said. “Tehran is building leverage, not a bomb.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister has defended his country’s plan to take further steps away from a 2015 nuclear deal if Europe fails to provide solution on reviving it.
Mohammad Javad Zarif was speaking Friday at a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart in Jakarta.
Zarif did not say what exact steps his country will take as a deadline it gave Europeans to save the deal is to expire on Friday.
He said the measures that his country has taken are in response to U.S. sanctions, which he called economic terrorism.
The 2015 deal with world powers has steadily unraveled following President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the U.S. from the accord last year.
Meanwhile, mysterious oil tanker attacks struck near the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks, attacks that the U.S. blames on Iran. Tehran denies it was involved.
Iran also shot down a U.S. military surveillance drone and seized oil tankers as America deployed nuclear-capable B-52 bombers, advanced fighter jets and more troops to the region.
The U.S. has sought to seize an Iranian oil tanker, the Adrian Darya-1, now thought by analysts to be off the Syrian coast despite a pledge by Tehran that its cargo wasn’t bound there.
In his speech late Wednesday, Rouhani said Tehran would soon begin work on research and development of “all kinds” of centrifuges that enrich uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas.
Iran has begun breaking limits of the deal, such as just creeping beyond its 3.67%-enrichment limit and its stockpile rules. Using advanced centrifuges speeds up enrichment and Iranian officials already have raised the idea of enriching to 20% – a small technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Iran long has maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and denies it seeks an atomic bomb. However, Western nations have pointed to previous Iranian research into a weapons program that U.N. experts say largely ended in 2003.
France in recent days had pushed the idea of offering Iran a $15 billion credit to sell its oil, though details remain unclear and it appeared the deal wouldn’t come through before Iran’s deadline Friday.
That appears to show Iran trying to resort to its own maximum pressure campaign through the nuclear program to get what it wants, said Henry Rome, an analyst for the Eurasia Group.
“Iran’s plan appears to be provocative but reversible,” Rome said. “Tehran is building leverage, not a bomb.”
