Iranian presidency, AFP | A handout picture made available by the Iranian presidential office shows Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attending events for “nuclear technology day" in Tehran on April 9, 2019.

Iran said Monday it will surpass from June 27 its uranium stockpile limit set under the nuclear deal with world powers, turning up the pressure after the US walked away from the landmark pact last year.

"Today the countdown to pass the 300 kilograms reserve of enriched uranium has started and in 10 days time... we will pass this limit," Iran's atomic energy organisation spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi told a news conference broadcast live on state television.

The move "will be reversed once other parties live up to their commitments," he added, speaking from the Arak nuclear plant southwest of Tehran.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the international community to immediately hit Iran with "snapback sanctions" should it violate the deal by surpassing the uranium stockpile limit set in the deal.

Speaking at a news conference in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron said he "regrets" Iran's announcement, noting that the Islamic Republic so far still respects its obligations under the 2015 accord.

On May 8, President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would stop observing restrictions on its stocks of enriched uranium and heavy water agreed under the 2015 nuclear deal.

Rouhani said the move was in retaliation for the unilateral US withdrawal from the accord a year earlier, which saw Washington impose tough economic sanctions on Tehran.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have escalated ever since, with the United States bolstering its military presence in the region and blacklisting Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation.

The United States has also blamed Iran for last week's attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, a charge Tehran has denied as "baseless".

Iran has threatened to go even further in scaling down nuclear commitments by July 8 unless remaining partners to the deal -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- help it circumvent US sanctions and especially enable it to sell its oil.

"The current situation is sensitive" and there is still time for the deal's partners to save this agreement, Rouhani told the French ambassador to Tehran Philippe Thiebaud on Monday.

"The collapse of the JCPOA is undoubtedly not in the interest of Iran... the region and the world," he added, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the deal is formally known.

Under the agreement, Iran pledged to reduce its nuclear capacities for several years and allow international inspectors inside the country to monitor its activities in return for relief from international sanctions.

The deal set a limit on the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges, and restricted its right to enrich uranium to no higher than 3.67 percent, well below weapons-grade levels of around 90 percent.

It also called on Iran to export enriched uranium and heavy water to ensure the country's reserves would stay within the production ceiling set by the agreement, yet recent US restrictions have made such exports virtually impossible.

According to Rouhani, the ultimatum he issued last month was intended to "save the (deal), not destroy it".

The three European parties to the accord created a trade mechanism meant to bypass US sanctions, but their attempt was dismissed by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a "bitter joke".

The spokesman for Iran's atomic energy organisation warned further steps could be taken if world powers do not step up to help the country.

"They range from going to 3.68 percent to any other percent according to the country's needs," said Kamalvandi.

Authorities were still debating whether to "redesign or revive" the Arak reactor, he added.

Uranium enriched to much higher levels than Iran's current stocks can be used as the fissile core of a nuclear weapon, while heavy water is a source of plutonium, which can be used as an alternative way to produce a warhead.

"#Iran not bluffing about 60-day deadline for ceasing compliance with parts of nuclear deal," Ellie Geranmayeh, senior fellow at European Council on Foreign Relation said in a tweet.

She downplayed the importance of uranium and heavy water stockpiles increasing and said it would be more worrying for Europe if Iran exceeded the enrichment level allowed in the deal.

"I imagine Tehran will do this incrementally, testing Europeans at each stage."

Germany has acknowledged the economic benefits Iran hoped for from the deal were now "more difficult to obtain", but has urged Iran to fully respect the "extraordinarily important" nuclear deal.

"A point to Europeans: if the first step took time to be done, other steps, especially increasing enrichment... need no more than a day or two," said Kamalvandi. </s> The commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has slammed the address made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and "anyone who backs" Washington, saying that the Iranian people would deliver a "strong punch to the mouth" of the American official.

"The people of Iran should stand united in the face of this," Ismail Kowsari, the deputy commander of the Sarollah Revolutionary Guards base in Tehran added, as quoted by the Iranian Labour News Agency.

The statement comes a day after Pompeo delivered a speech dubbed "After the Deal: A New Iran Strategy," in which he promised that the US would apply unprecedented financial pressure on Tehran via "strongest in history" sanctions. While stating that Washington won't renegotiate the historic Iran nuclear deal, he also outlined 12 demands for Tehran, including the withdrawal of forces from Syria.

The Islamic Republic has slammed the address, with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani saying that the world cannot accept that Washington makes unilateral decisions for all nations.

READ MORE: Israeli PM Praises Pompeo's Iran Speech as 'Policy That Can Guarantee Security'

In its turn, the EU, which has been one of the brokers of the 2015 nuclear agreement, has also criticized the move: "Secretary Pompeo's speech has not demonstrated how walking away from the JCPOA (nuclear deal) has made or will make the region safer from the threat of nuclear proliferation or how it puts us in a better position to influence Iran's conduct in areas outside the scope of JCPOA."

The US relations with its major EU allies — namely Germany, France and Britain — members of the P5+1 group that reached the nuclear accord, have significantly deteriorated due to President Donald Trump's decision on the withdrawal from the accord, which he has long been as the "worst deal in history."

According to German media reports, the EU, Germany, France and Britain have invited Russia and China to discuss the future of the Iranian nuclear deal in Vienna, with the US representatives being sidelined from the upcoming meeting. </s> Iran has suspended key commitments under the 2015 international nuclear deal, a year after it was abandoned by the US.

President Hassan Rouhani said he would keep enriched uranium stocks in the country rather than sell them abroad.

He also threatened to resume production of higher enriched uranium in 60 days.

According to BBC, the accord was aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions in return for sanctions relief. Iran-US tensions have risen since Washington quit.

Iran’s economy has since been hit by renewed US sanctions.

Iran informed the remaining parties to the deal – France, Germany, Russia, China and the UK – of its decision on Wednesday morning.

In response, French Defence Minister Florence Parly told French media that the European powers were doing everything they could to keep the deal alive but there would be consequences and possibly sanctions if the deal was not adhered to.

Iran’s announcement comes after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an unscheduled visit to Iraq, and a US aircraft carrier was deployed to the Gulf region.
• Iran nuclear deal – all you need to know
• Is it about to become more expensive to fill my car?

US officials have reported threats to US forces and their allies from Iran, but have given few details about the exact nature of the threat.

What did President Rouhani say?

Mr Rouhani said he was suspending two parts of the deal, which is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), that Iran was adhering to – the sale of surplus enriched uranium and heavy water.

He then gave the European powers, Russia and China 60 days to meet their financial and oil commitments to the deal. If they did so, Iran would resume the sales.

If, however, those commitments were not met and the powers chose to follow US sanctions, he said Iran would begin higher enrichment of uranium, which is currently capped, and begin developing its Arak heavy water reactor based on plans made prior to the deal.

But the Iranian president said Iran was not pulling out of the deal.

“We do not want to leave the agreement. All the people of the world should know that today is not the end of the JCPOA; it is a new step within the framework of the JCPOA,” he said.

However, he said the five powers would face a “very decisive reaction” if Iran’s nuclear case was referred to the United Nations Security Council. </s> Tehran, May 8 (IANS) Iran will partially withdraw from the 2015 landmark nuclear deal signed with six other nations, President Hassan Rouhani announced on Wednesday, a move that comes a year after the US unilaterally withdrew from the pact.

In a televised speech, Rouhani said that Tehran would reduce its “commitments” to the deal, but would not fully withdraw and that signatories of the deal — France, the UK, Germany, Russia and China — had been informed in advance of the move.

According to the President, Iran would keep enriched uranium stocks in the country and not sell them abroad. He also threatened to resume production of higher enriched uranium in 60 days.

Rouhani accused “hardliners” in the US of working to undermine the agreement, saying it was “in the interests of the region and the world, but not the enemies of Iran, therefore they spared no effort since 2015 to undermine (the deal)”, CNN reported.

The accord is aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions in return for sanctions relief, but Tehran-Washington tensions have risen since the US withdrew from the deal. US President Donald Trump later reimposed sanctions on Tehran, hitting its economy.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran declares that at the current stage, it does not any more see itself committed to respecting the limitations on keeping enriched uranium and heavy water reserves,” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) said in a statement.

The SNSC said other partners would have 60 days to lift pressure from Iran caused by the US sanctions, otherwise the country “will cease implementation of restrictions on uranium enrichment levels”.

The announcement comes after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an unscheduled visit to Iraq, and a US aircraft carrier was deployed to the Gulf region. </s> Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said the world will "not accept" US unilateralism just hours after Washington laid out a series of tough demands to be included in a potential new nuclear treaty with Iran.

In remarks carried by Iran's ILNA news agency on Monday, Rouhani said the era of the US making decisions for the rest of the world was "over".

"Countries are independent ... We will continue our path with the support of our nation," Rouhani said.

"Who are you to decide for Iran and the world?"

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump's defied efforts by European allies and announced Washington's withdrawal from a landmark multinational pact signed with Iran in Vienna in 2015 and a decision to impose tough sanctions on Tehran.

In announcing the new US strategy towards Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday warned Washington "will apply unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime" unless it complied with a list of 12 conditions, which must be met before any new deal can be reached.

The demands include giving the International Atomic Energy Agency a full account of the country's former nuclear military programme, withdrawing its forces from Syria and ending what Pompeo described as Iran's "threatening behaviour" towards its neighbours.

Also responding to Pompeo, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif accused the US of a "regression to old habits", saying Washington's diplomatic efforts were a "sham".

"It repeats the same wrong choices and will thus reap the same ill rewards. Iran, meanwhile, is working with partners for post-US JCPOA solutions," Zarif said in a tweet on Monday.

Political analyst Jamal Abdi said the US knew that Iran could never agree with such demands.

"[It's a smokescreen of 'We want to handle this diplomatically', but I think this is all about paving a path towards confronting Iran militarily - whether that's through covert action or an overt escalation in the region."

Under the 2015 deal with six world powers - China, France, Russia, the UK, the US and Germany, as well as the European Union - Iran scaled back its enrichment of uranium and vowed not to pursue nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly confirmed that Tehran has been meeting its nuclear commitments enshrined in the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), fully.

The spat comes after several European companies expressed concern about continuing business with Iran following the US exit, raising further doubts about the viability of the deal.

Danish shipping giant Maersk Tankers, German insurer Allianz and Italian steel manufacturer Danieli have all announced plans to halt, or wind down altogether, operations in the country.

French energy giant Total has also warned it will pull out of a multibillion-dollar project to develop Iran's vast South Pars gas field unless granted a waiver by US authorities.

Despite recent efforts from EU leaders to safeguard the 2015 deal, Zarif has accused the bloc of not doing enough to preserve its future, saying it "needs to take more practical strides and increase its investments in Iran if it is to continue its economic cooperation with the Islamic Republic [Iran]".

Reacting to Pompeo's comments, Boris Johnson - foreign secretary of Britain, which is party to the 2015 nuclear deal - said the "jumbo negotiation" sought by Washington would be extremely difficult to achieve within a "reasonable timetable".

"I think in the end, we will get back to the kind of additions to the JCPOA that we initially envisaged - but it may take a long time," Johnson said on Monday ahead of a G20 foreign ministers summit in Argentina, at which discussions about the nuclear deal are expected to take place.

Britain has vowed to honour the 2015 agreement, which Johnson said had "protected the world from an Iranian nuclear bomb, and in return [given] the Iranians some recognisable economic benefits".

On Thursday, the European Commission said it would launch the process of activating a law that bans European companies and courts from complying with US sanctions against Iran.

Jean Claude Juncker, the commission's president, said it has a "duty to protect European companies" from Washington's punitive fiscal measures.

The options being considered by the bloc to keep Tehran in the nuclear deal reportedly include new credit lines, increased energy cooperation and implementing EU laws to block European firms from caving in to US sanctions.

EU trade with Iran has increased dramatically since the sanctions on its economy were lifted as part of the 2015 deal.

Last year, trade between the bloc and Iran totalled over 20bn euro ($23.5bn), with most exports being machinery and transport goods and the majority of imports being energy-related products. </s> BERLIN — The world powers struggling to preserve a nuclear deal with Iran are facing an increasingly uphill battle, with a new deadline from Tehran on finding a solution to make up for last year’s unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the accord and the increasing economic hardship that has put on the Islamic Republic.

After Iran notified Britain, Russia, China, the European Union, France and Germany of its intentions in a letter, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised address Wednesday that the nations have 60 days to come up with a plan to shield his country from the sanctions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump after he pulled Washington out of the deal.

“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,” Rouhani said.

The 2015 deal, intended to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, promised economic incentives in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear activities. Despite efforts so far by the others to keep the deal from collapsing, Iran’s economy has been struggling and its currency has plummeted in value after the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions.

Later Wednesday, Trump issued an executive order announcing new sanctions targeting Iran’s steel, aluminum, copper and iron sectors, which provide foreign currency earnings for Tehran.

Many international corporations are reluctant to risk running afoul of Washington and have severed ties with Iran; a complicated barter-type system set up by the Europeans to allow their businesses to skirt direct financial transactions with Iran — and thus evade possible U.S. sanctions — is not yet finalized.

Iran has continued abiding by the stipulations of the deal, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, but had been expressing increasing frustration with the inability of the Europeans to provide economic relief, culminating with Wednesday’s threat to resume higher enrichment of uranium in 60 days unless new terms are negotiated.

Despite Rouhani’s threatening rhetoric and the now-ticking clock, Europeans were cautiously hoping the Iranian president was not on the verge of breaking the deal but instead seeking to show strength domestically as the economy slumps.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said his office had been in contact with all the others involved in the Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, since the announcement to see what could be done to get Tehran to back down.

“Our opinion is and remains: We want to preserve the agreement, in particular to prevent Iran from coming into possession of nuclear weapons,” he told reporters. “We don’t need further escalation in the region.”

Similarly, French Defense Minister Florence Parly told BFMTV television that “nothing would be worse than Iran leaving this deal.”

“We absolutely want to keep this agreement alive,” Parly said.

At a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in London, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called Iran’s threat “unwelcome” and urged it not to take “further escalatory steps,” while emphasizing Britain was not ready to give up on the JCPOA.

“For as long as Iran keeps its commitments then so, too, will the United Kingdom,” he said.

Hunt said Britain and the U.S. agreed on the need to confront the threat from Iran, but “it’s no secret we have a different approach on how best to achieve that.”

Pompeo was restrained in his own assessment of the letter that Iran sent to the JCPOA group outlining its intentions.

“I think it was intentionally ambiguous,” he said. “We’ll have to wait to see what Iran’s actions actually are. They have made have made a number of statements about actions they have threatened to do in order to get the world to jump.”

In his television address, Rouhani also tried a gambit designed to hit a sore spot for Europe, over the issue of migration and drug-smuggling.

Noting that Iran now cooperates on issues like controlling immigration and targeting Afghan opium and hashish traffickers, he said: “You are obliged ... for your own security, for protecting your youths against drugs as well as controlling influx of immigrants.”

There was no immediate response from officials in Europe, which has seen an influx of refugees and migrants from the Middle East in recent years.

China, a key Iranian ally and trading partner, suggested that Washington’s recent decision to deploy an aircraft carrier group and a bomber wing to the Middle East to confront unspecified threats from Tehran had added fuel to the fire.

“We regret that the U.S. has further aggravated the tension on the Iranian nuclear issue,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. “We call on all parties concerned to exercise restraint, strengthen dialogue and avoid escalating tensions.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went a step further, saying the situation surrounding the fate of the 2015 nuclear accord has been complicated by “irresponsible behavior” from Washington.

After meeting in Moscow with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, Lavrov reaffirmed Russia’s support for the deal and blamed the U.S. for undermining it.

“The U.S. is to blame for the situation and it makes it difficult for both Iran to fulfill its obligations and ... for the general state of the nuclear non-proliferation regime,” Lavrov said.

Zarif insisted that Iran’s decision to partially withdraw from certain provisions did not violate the agreement, and asserted it was provoked by U.S. actions toward Iran.

He also said Iran will uphold its obligations if European signatories to the deal uphold theirs.

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Jill Lawless in London, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Elaine Ganley in Paris, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Matthew Bodner in Moscow contributed.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> TEHRAN, Iran — Iran will surpass the uranium-stockpile limit set by its nuclear deal in the next 10 days, an official said Monday, raising pressure on Europeans trying to save the accord a year after the U.S. withdrawal lit the fuse for the heightened tensions now between Tehran and Washington.

Hours later, the Pentagon announced it was sending about 1,000 additional American troops to the Middle East to bolster security in the region in the face of what U.S. officials said is a growing threat from Iran.

The announcement by Iran’s nuclear agency marked yet another deadline set by Tehran. President Hassan Rouhani already has warned Europe that a new deal needs to be in place by July 7 or the Islamic Republic would increase its enrichment of uranium.

Atomic energy spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi suggested that Iran’s enrichment could reach up to 20%, just a step away from weapons-grade levels.

It appears as if Iran has begun its own maximum pressure campaign on the world after facing one from President Donald Trump’s administration that deeply cut into its sale of crude oil abroad and sent its economy into freefall. Europe has so far been unable to offer Iran a way around the U.S. sanctions.

The development follows apparent attacks last week in the Strait of Hormuz on oil tankers, assaults that Washington has blamed on Iran. While Iran has denied being involved, it laid mines in the 1980s targeting oil tankers around the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil passes.

“If this condition continues, there will be no deal” anymore, Kamalvandi said. He accused the Europeans of “killing time” as the clock runs down.

Rouhani, greeting France’s new ambassador to Tehran on Monday, similarly warned that time was running out on the deal.

“The current situation is very critical and France and the other parties to the (deal) still have a very limited opportunity to play their historic role for saving the deal,” Rouhani said, according to his website.

The Iranian announcement appeared timed to strike just as European foreign ministers met in Luxembourg. Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s top diplomat, declined to specifically address the Iranian announcement.

“At the moment, as of today, Iran is still technically compliant and we strongly hope, encourage and expect that Iran continues to comply,” Mogherini told journalists. She insisted she would await the next report on the issue from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Under terms of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran can keep a stockpile of no more than 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of low-enriched uranium. Kamalvandi said that given Iran’s recent decision to quadruple its production of low-enriched uranium, it would pass the 300-kilogram limit on Thursday, June 27.

The Vienna-based IAEA said last month that Iran remained within its stockpile limits and declined to comment on Iran’s announcement. Kamalvandi said Iran would continue to allow the U.N. to inspect its nuclear facilities for the time being.

He also raised the specter of increasing its enrichment levels, saying Iran needs 5% enriched uranium for its nuclear power plant in southern Iranian port of Bushehr and 20% enriched fuel for its Tehran research reactor.

The nuclear deal limits Iran to enriching uranium only to 3.67%, enough for power plants and other peaceful purposes.

But after America pulled out of the nuclear accord and escalated sanctions, Rouhani set a July 7 deadline for Europe to come up with better terms for the deal or Tehran would boost enrichment further. So far, a European mechanism called INSTEX to protect trade with Iran has yet to take off.

The danger, nuclear nonproliferation experts warn, is that at 20% enrichment, only a fraction of atoms need to be removed to enrich up to weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the 2015 deal grew out of Western concerns about the program.

Under the accord, Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Since Trump took office, the U.S. has steadily stripped away at the accord, and he pulled America out of the deal in May 2018.

However, Iran’s announcement that it was on the verge of surpassing the uranium-stockpile limit set by the nuclear agreement put the U.S. is the awkward position of having to push Iran to abide by the deal Trump has disparaged.

“It’s unfortunate that they have made this announcement today,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said. “It doesn’t surprise anybody and this is why the president has often said that the JCPOA needs to be replaced with a better deal.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the international community should reinstate sanctions if Iran follows through on its threats, adding: “In any case, Israel will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.”

Tensions have risen in the region since last month. The U.S. rushed an aircraft carrier strike group and other military assets to the Middle East in response to what it said were threats from Iran. On Monday, the Pentagon said it would send additional security forces and troops for increased surveillance and intelligence gathering in the region.

Meanwhile, a series of mysterious attacks have targeted oil tankers, and the U.S. blames Iranian-laid limpet mines. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen also have launched a series of drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon on Monday released new photos intended to bolster its case that Iran was responsible for the attacks.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which the U.S. suspects in the attacks, answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and operates outside of the traditional military’s control.

Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the chief of the general staff of Iran’s armed forces, denied Tehran was involved in the tanker attacks, saying Monday the country only would respond in “an open, strong and severe way” if needed.

But he also reiterated Iran’s traditional stance on the Strait of Hormuz.

“If we decide to block the Strait of Hormuz, we will to do it in a way that even a drop of oil won’t pass the strait,” Bagheri added.

Kamalvandi spoke to Iranian journalists at the country’s Arak heavy water nuclear reactor. Such reactors produce plutonium that can be used in nuclear weapons. Iran, under the nuclear deal, had reconfigured the facility to address Western concerns on that issue.

However, Kamalvandi said the country could rebuild the facility to make it produce plutonium. He made a point to give an interview to Iranian state television, standing next to the open pit where the reactor would be in the facility.

As the camera panned down to what would be the reactor’s core, Kamalvandi stressed that piping could be replaced and the reactor could be built to make plutonium. Hard-liners opposed to the nuclear deal had constantly accused the agency of filling the entire pit with concrete.

“They had previously photoshopped a picture of this place having been filled up with concrete,” Kamalvandi said.

He added: “The message that we tried to get across to Europeans today was that not much time is left for them.” </s> TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has informed ambassadors from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China and Russia that it would stop implementing parts of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

The announcements came amid rising pressure on Tehran from the Trump White House. The U.S. withdrew from the accord a year ago Wednesday.

In a speech broadcast on national television on the anniversary of America's withdrawal from the deal, President Hassan Rouhani said the country would also resume high level enrichment of uranium if world powers did not keep their promises under the Obama-era agreement.

"We felt that the nuclear deal needs a surgery and the painkiller pills of the last year have been ineffective," Rouhani said. "This surgery is for saving the deal, not destroying it."

The 2015 deal saw sanctions on Iran lifted in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.

The Trump administration has previously acknowledged that Iran was living up to the agreement, but alleges it also gave the Islamic republic cover to pursue its ballistic weapons program and deepen its regional influence.

Washington subsequently restored crippling sanctions on Iran, exacerbating a severe economic crisis. These measures punish multinationals that do business with Iran. Faced with the choice of working with Iran or stiff American fines, most companies have chosen the latter.

Speaking Wednesday, Rouhani said the remaining signatories to the pact — the U.K., France, Germany, China and Russia are still committed to the deal — had 60 days to implement their promises to protect Iran's oil and banking sectors from U.S. sanctions.

Rouhani also warned of a "strong reaction" if European leaders sought to impose more sanctions on Iran via the U.N. Security Council. He did not elaborate.

In an interview with NBC News in Sept. 2017, Rouhani warned that if Trump backed out of the deal, "no one will trust America again."

Western governments had long feared Iran's atomic program could allow it to build nuclear weapons. Iran has always maintained its program is for peaceful purposes.

Under terms of the deal, Iran can keep a stockpile of no more than 660 pounds of low-enriched uranium. That's compared to the 22,046 pounds of higher-enriched uranium it once had.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies view Shiite Iran as deeply hostile and have warned for years of the country's influence in the region, including in Iraq, Afghanistan and civil wars in Syria and Yemen.

Israel, meanwhile, considers Iran its biggest threat and has launched hundreds of airstrikes to curtail Iranian forces and Tehran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah in Syria, and keep them away from its northern border.

"We will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech marking Israel's Memorial Day on Wednesday.

On Monday, the administration announced it had expedited the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and sent an Air Force bomber squadron to the Persian Gulf.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called off a planned visit to Germany to fly to Iraq. The Trump administration alleges that Iran poses a growing threat to U.S. forces and interests in the Middle East.

The U.S. has also ended waivers for nations buying Iranian crude oil, a key source of revenue for Iran's government.

And on April 8, the U.S. announced it was designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, as a foreign terrorist organization.

The decision to target the powerful IRGC was aimed at ratcheting up pressure on Iran, and sending a “clear measure to Tehran that its support for terrorism has serious consequences,” according to a statement by the White House on April 8. “We will continue to increase financial pressure and raise the costs on the Iranian regime for its support of terrorist activity until it abandons its malign and outlaw behavior.”

The "main signal" the Iranian government was trying to send Wednesday was that "they don't want to accept the status quo," according to Aniseh Tabrizi, an Middle East expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.

While seeking to contain Iran, the U.S. moves could end up empowering hardliners within the country, Tabrizi said.

Rouhani, who is seen as a reformer, had staked his political future on the deal and engaging with the West — arguing that signing a nuclear deal would boost the economy.

Now he and other reformers were “more isolated than ever,” and paying the price for trusting the West and the U.S. specifically, Tabrizi said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif blamed not only the U.S. for the country's decision, but also other signatories of the deal.

"The European Union and rest of the world community have been incapable of resisting the U.S. pressures," he told reporters. "The Islamic Republic sees it as expedient to stop implementing some of its commitments and some of the measures it had voluntarily taken within the nuclear deal for the time being."

Zarif spoke during a visit to Moscow — a sign of the widening gap between the U.S. and regional allies like Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates versus Iran and its partners such as Syria and Russia.

“Tehran is an old and reliable partner of Moscow in the region,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. “The Russian-Iranian political dialogue is progressively developing.”

Even before Tehran's announcement, there was growing alarm at the recent moves toward Iran.

Late Tuesday, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he was “deeply worried” that the Trump administration was heading toward an "unnecessary war."

“One year ago, the president withdrew the United States from the deal that prevented Iran from building nuclear weapons,” he said in a statement. “In the months since, Trump’s White House has taken a series of actions to increase tensions, including misrepresenting the regular deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln as a warning to Iran.”

F. Brinley Bruton reported from London, Ali Arouzi from Tehran and Paul Goldman from Tel Aviv, Israel. </s> The world powers struggling to preserve a nuclear deal with Iran are facing an increasingly uphill battle, with a new deadline from Tehran on finding a solution to make up for last year's unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the accord and the increasing economic hardship that has put on the Islamic Republic.

After Iran notified Britain, Russia, China, the European Union, France and Germany of its intentions in a letter, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised address Wednesday that the nations have 60 days to come up with a plan to shield his country from the sanctions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump after he pulled Washington out of the deal.

"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," Rouhani said.

The 2015 deal, intended to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, promised economic incentives in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear activities. Despite efforts so far by the others to keep the deal from collapsing, Iran's economy has been struggling and its currency has plummeted in value after the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions.

Later Wednesday, Trump issued an executive order announcing new sanctions targeting Iran's steel, aluminum, copper and iron sectors, which provide foreign currency earnings for Tehran.

Many international corporations are reluctant to risk running afoul of Washington and have severed ties with Iran; a complicated barter-type system set up by the Europeans to allow their businesses to skirt direct financial transactions with Iran — and thus evade possible U.S. sanctions — is not yet finalized.

Iran has continued abiding by the stipulations of the deal, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, but had been expressing increasing frustration with the inability of the Europeans to provide economic relief, culminating with Wednesday's threat to resume higher enrichment of uranium in 60 days unless new terms are negotiated.

Despite Rouhani's threatening rhetoric and the now-ticking clock, Europeans were cautiously hoping the Iranian president was not on the verge of breaking the deal but instead seeking to show strength domestically as the economy slumps.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said his office had been in contact with all the others involved in the Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, since the announcement to see what could be done to get Tehran to back down.

"Our opinion is and remains: We want to preserve the agreement, in particular to prevent Iran from coming into possession of nuclear weapons," he told reporters. "We don't need further escalation in the region."

Similarly, French Defense Minister Florence Parly told BFMTV television that "nothing would be worse than Iran leaving this deal."

"We absolutely want to keep this agreement alive," Parly said.

At a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in London, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called Iran's threat "unwelcome" and urged it not to take "further escalatory steps," while emphasizing Britain was not ready to give up on the JCPOA.

"For as long as Iran keeps its commitments then so, too, will the United Kingdom," he said.

Hunt said Britain and the U.S. agreed on the need to confront the threat from Iran, but "it's no secret we have a different approach on how best to achieve that."

Pompeo was restrained in his own assessment of the letter that Iran sent to the JCPOA group outlining its intentions.

"I think it was intentionally ambiguous," he said. "We'll have to wait to see what Iran's actions actually are. They have made have made a number of statements about actions they have threatened to do in order to get the world to jump."

In his television address, Rouhani also tried a gambit designed to hit a sore spot for Europe, over the issue of migration and drug-smuggling.

Noting that Iran now cooperates on issues like controlling immigration and targeting Afghan opium and hashish traffickers, he said: "You are obliged ... for your own security, for protecting your youths against drugs as well as controlling influx of immigrants."

There was no immediate response from officials in Europe, which has seen an influx of refugees and migrants from the Middle East in recent years.

China, a key Iranian ally and trading partner, suggested that Washington's recent decision to deploy an aircraft carrier group and a bomber wing to the Middle East to confront unspecified threats from Tehran had added fuel to the fire.

"We regret that the U.S. has further aggravated the tension on the Iranian nuclear issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. "We call on all parties concerned to exercise restraint, strengthen dialogue and avoid escalating tensions."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went a step further, saying the situation surrounding the fate of the 2015 nuclear accord has been complicated by "irresponsible behavior" from Washington.

After meeting in Moscow with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, Lavrov reaffirmed Russia's support for the deal and blamed the U.S. for undermining it.

"The U.S. is to blame for the situation and it makes it difficult for both Iran to fulfill its obligations and ... for the general state of the nuclear non-proliferation regime," Lavrov said.

Zarif insisted that Iran's decision to partially withdraw from certain provisions did not violate the agreement, and asserted it was provoked by U.S. actions toward Iran.

He also said Iran will uphold its obligations if European signatories to the deal uphold theirs.

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Jill Lawless in London, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Elaine Ganley in Paris, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Matthew Bodner in Moscow contributed.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sends letters to the P5+1 leaders of the United Kingdom, China, Russia, Germany, France and the European Union announcing the country's partial withdrawal from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement. Furthermore, Iran announces that it will stop exporting uranium and heavy water from its nuclear program.