Iran will resume uranium enrichment if world powers do not keep nuclear agreement promise: Rouhani
Hassan Rouhani
Iran will resume high-level enrichment of uranium if world powers do not keep their promises under a 2015 nuclear agreement, President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday, responding to the US withdrawal from the deal a year ago.
In a speech broadcast on national television, Rouhani said the remaining signatories - the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China and Russia - had 60 days to implement their promises to protect Iran's oil and banking sectors from US sanctions.
Rouhani has written to the leaders of those countries, saying it will start rolling back some of its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal on Wednesday, and will no longer sell enriched uranium and heavy water to other nations.
"If the five countries came to the negotiating table and we reached an agreement, and if they could protect our interests in oil and banking sectors, we will go back to square one (and will resume our commitments)," Rouhani said.
Iran told ambassadors from the signatory countries that it would roll back some of its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Wednesday.
Rouhani warned of a firm response if Iran's nuclear case is referred again to the United Nations Security Council, but said Tehran was ready for negotiations over its nuclear programme.
He also said his country will no longer sell enriched uranium and heavy water to other nations.
Meanwhile, the US military said that B-52 bombers will be part of additional forces being sent to the Middle East to counter what the Trump administration says are "clear indications" of threats from Iran to US forces there.
White House national security adviser John Bolton had said on Sunday that the United States was deploying a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East.
Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for USCentral Command, said that the bomber task force would consist of B-52 bombers.
However, Iran's top security body dismissed the USplan to send forces to the region as "psychological warfare."
The US military confirmed that the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group had already been scheduled to go to the Middle East, but that its movement was "expedited" due to heightened tension with Iran.