TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday that Iran’s steps in reducing its nuclear commitments are “reversible” only if the three European countries of Britain, France, and Germany (E3) honor their commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the official name for the 2015 nuclear agreement.

Zarif’s statement came a few hours after Iran officially announced it has started enriching uranium to a higher purity than the current 3.67%, as the Europeans missed a 60-day deadline by Tehran to devise a concrete mechanism to protect the country from the U.S. sanctions.

Today, Iran is taking its second round of remedial steps under Para 36 of the JCPOA. We reserve the right to continue to exercise legal remedies within JCPOA to protect our interests in the face of US #EconomicTerrorism. All such steps are reversible only through E3 compliance.

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) July 7, 2019

“Today, Iran is taking its second round of remedial steps under Para 36 of the JCPOA. We reserve the right to continue to exercise legal remedies within JCPOA to protect our interests in the face of US #EconomicTerrorism. All such steps are reversible only through E3 compliance,” Zarif tweeted.

Paragraph 36 of the JCPOA provided a mechanism to resolve disputes and allows one side, under certain circumstances, to stop complying with the deal if the other side is out of compliance.

Iran announced on May 8 a partial withdrawal from some aspects of the pact, saying that the country would no longer adhere to some of the limits on its nuclear activities. It also threatened to step up uranium enrichment if an agreement is not made within 60 days to protect it from the sanctions’ effects.

In an interview with ABC News on June 2, Zarif labeled the new U.S. sanctions as “economic terrorism” that “targets ordinary Iranian people”.

U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the nuclear deal in May 2018 and ordered sanctions on Tehran. Trump has even introduced full ban on Iran’s oil export, a move which has been described as an economic war against Tehran.

NA/PA