Iran has exceeded the limits for its enriched-uranium stockpile set in its 2015 nuclear deal, state media reported on Monday — a development that could further roil tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed Iran had breached the 300-kilogram cap it agreed to in the pact with six world powers.
The White House condemned the move.
“The United States and its allies will never allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons,” it said in a statement.
“Maximum pressure on the Iranian regime will continue until its leaders alter their course of action. The regime must end its nuclear ambitions and its malign behavior.”
President Trump last year withdrew from the deal — which the Obama administration brokered with Iran, Britain, Germany, France, the European Union, Russia and China — and reimposed crippling sanctions and included new penalties to force Tehran to the negotiating table.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif remained defiant.
“Iran will never yield to pressure from the United States . . . If they want to talk to Iran, they should show respect,” Zarif said in a speech on state TV.
Zarif said he wanted the countries still participating in the deal to ease sanctions against his country as laid out in the agreement.
The Europeans, who disagreed with Trump’s pulling out of the deal, urged Iran to reverse course.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the UK wished to stay in the deal because “we don’t want Iran to have nuclear weapons. But if Iran breaks that deal, then we are out of it, as well.”
Last month, Trump approved, then halted, a military strike on Iran in retaliation for its downing of a US surveillance drone.
The US has also blamed Iran for attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
Trump deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft-carrier strike group to the region to counter Iran.
With Post wires