Iran said on Wednesday it would not give European powers any more time beyond July 8 to save its nuclear deal by shielding it from U.S. sanctions.
The spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said Tehran was ready to go through with a threat to enrich uranium to a higher level if Europe did not step in, a move that would breach the terms of a nuclear pact with world powers.
Any such breach would raise already heightened tensions between Iran and U.S. President Donald Trump who has said he is ready to take military action to stop Tehran getting a nuclear bomb.
Tehran said in May it would reduce compliance with the nuclear pact it agreed with world powers in 2015, in protest at the United States’ decision to unilaterally pull out of the agreement and reimpose sanctions last year.
Iran added that it would start enriching uranium at a higher level unless other European signatories to the deal protected its economy from the U.S. sanctions within 60 days.
“Iran’s two-month deadline to remaining signatories of the JCPOA (nuclear deal) cannot be extended, and the second phase will be implemented exactly as planned,” atomic agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh also said on Wednesday that Europe was not helping to counteract U.S. sanctions on its energy sector by buying its oil.