Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic will keep rolling back its commitments under the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, AFP reports.
"You did not carry out a single one (of your commitments), why do you want us to stick to our commitments?" Khamenei said, criticizing European countries which are party to the deal.
"We have just started to decrease our commitments (in the deal) and this process will certainly continue," he said in a speech in Tehran partly aired on state television.
Iran, in retaliation for the US withdrawing from the 2015 deal, announced two weeks ago that it had exceeded the amount of enriched uranium permitted under the deal. Several days later, Iran followed up by saying it had begun to enrich uranium to 5% purity instead of the 3.67% limit imposed under the JCPOA.
On Monday, Iran warned the EU that it is prepared to end all of its commitments under the 2015 nuclear, and restore its nuclear program to the status quo ante, under which Tehran placed no limits on any areas of nuclear development.
Iran is demanding that the partners remaining after the US withdrew last year -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- helped it circumvent US sanctions, especially to sell its oil.
Several weeks ago, Iran met in Vienna with European, Russian and Chinese officials to discuss ways to save the 2015 nuclear following the US withdrawal.
Iran’s envoy to the meeting in Vienna said that European countries had offered too little to persuade Tehran to back off from its plans to breach limits imposed by the deal.
The EU earlier this year introduced a trade mechanism that would bypass US sanctions on Iran, in a bid to save the 2015 deal, but Iran has rejected that mechanism thus far.
In his remarks on Tuesday, Khamenei also vowed to retaliate against Britain for seizing an Iranian tanker in Gibraltar, which US officials said had been trying to deliver oil to Syria in violation of sanctions.
"The vicious British... have committed piracy and stolen our ship... God willing the Islamic Republic will not leave these vicious acts unanswered," he said.