Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says his country's plan to scale back on the commitments it pledged under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is a "phased" process that leaves the window to diplomacy open. Yet Araghchi, who was also a senior negotiator in the marathon nuclear talks culminating in the landmark accord in 2015, hit out once more at Europeans for their delays in fulfilling their obligations.

"Unfortunately, the proportion between Iran's commitments with its rights under the deal has been shattered … which is why Tehran finds no reason to continue a unilateral fulfillment of obligations," he told the visiting state secretary of the Slovakian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs in Tehran — a city that has witnessed a recent diplomatic frenzy involving European representatives tasked with last-ditch efforts to salvage the deal.

The gradual process underscored by Araghchi is a series of measures Iran revealed May 8 on the first anniversary of the US withdrawal from the JCPOA. The announcement also marked the end of one full year of what Iran called "strategic patience" with the European signatories, accused of failing to provide Tehran with the accord's promised economic dividends.

Iran gave the Europeans 60 days to take practical steps toward saving the agreement, a deadline that is set to expire July 8. In a harsh reminder about the countdown June 25, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani unleashed a ferocious attack on the Europeans for mistaking Iran's "patience with weakness and inaction." Shamkhani stressed that the Islamic Republic will not hesitate to implement its measures in the "second step," which involves a resumption of uranium enrichment up to 20%, far above the 3.67% cap placed by the JCPOA. In the first phase, Iran declared that its low-enriched stockpile will have exceeded the 300-kilogram limit by June 27.