The Iranian government said Wednesday it would back off part of its commitments from a 2015 nuclear agreement and threatened to reduce its compliance even further if the deal's other signatories do not take steps to help ease the burden of U.S. sanctions.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised address that the country would cease exporting excess enriched uranium and heavy water produced in the uranium enrichment process, two of the curbs intended to keep its nuclear program under caps set by the deal that the U.
S. pulled out of last year.Rouhani also warned that Tehran would increase its level of uranium enrichment beyond the low level permitted by the deal in 60 days if the other nations party to the agreement — Germany, Russia, France, China and the United Kingdom — did not step in to alleviate pressures caused by crushing U.S. sanctions.
The move, while not a violation of the deal, tests its boundaries in the wake of a new U.S. policy that ends the practice of issuing waivers that allowed some nations to purchase Iranian oil without punishment under American sanctions.
Military tension between Iran and the U.S. has increased in recent weeks, with the Trump administration designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization last month. On Sunday, the White House announced it had deployed a Navy strike group to the Central Command region in the Middle East in response to a “credible threat” from Iran against U.S. and partner forces in the region.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo canceled a meeting with in Germany with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, instead taking an unscheduled trip to Iraq amid the discord.
Rouhani’s announcement, pegged to the one year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the deal, was not intended to sink the deal, only draw its remaining signatories back to the negotiating table, the Iranian president said.
“The world should know that today is not the end of the JCPOA. These are actions in line with the JCPOA,” he said, referring to the deal by its acronym.“We felt that the nuclear deal needs a surgery and the painkiller pills of the last year have been ineffective. This surgery is for saving the deal, not destroying it,” Rouhani said, according to the Associated Press, adding also that “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.”
Trump has been outspoken in his opposition to the nuclear deal, citing problems with its sunset provision and Iranian malign behavior — including support for groups identified by the U.S. as terrorist organizations — that is not addressed by the deal. One of the hallmarks of the U.S. president's foreign policy has been his hard line on Iran, much to the satisfaction of allies in the region like Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. announced in April that it would no longer issue waivers from its punishing sanctions to countries who purchase Iranian crude oil, in an attempt to drive the Islamic Republic's exports down to zero and exacerbate Tehran’s economic turmoil. That policy went into effect as of this month.
The deal's remaining signatories signaled distress at Iran’s move.
Reuters reported that in Moscow, where Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is set to meet Wednesday with his Iranian counterpart, the Kremlin laid blame on Washington for taking “unthought-out steps” in pulling out of the deal last year. “The situation is serious,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
And in France, Defense Minister Florence Parly told a local outlet that “nothing would be worse than Iran pulling out of JCPOA. We Europeans and France absolutely want to keep the JCPOA alive.”
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine