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Iran ready for 'second phase' in scaling back nuclear deal commitments

Iran is expressing full determination to enter a "second phase" in reducing its commitments under the nuclear deal as it perceives European moves to protect the pact as insufficient.
Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaks during a news conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Alhakim in Baghdad, Iraq May 26, 2019. REUTERS/Khalid Al-Mousily - RC1CB4BEB750

"The European measures have been insufficient … and the Islamic Republic will proceed with the second phase of reducing its commitments," said Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif July 1, after he officially confirmed that his country's stockpile of low-enriched uranium had exceeded 300 kilograms, a level set by the 2015 nuclear deal formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Zarif also announced that the same holds true for Iran's heavy water supplies, revealing that the reserve is already past the 130-ton limit, which Iran had been observing under the deal. The "second phase" Zarif warned about is the stage at which Tehran will push the scope of its uranium enrichment beyond 3.67%. That's one in a series of measures the Islamic Republic has decided to take against what it laments as European signatories' inaction in protecting the accord after US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled his country out of it and triggered the resumption of secondary sanctions on Iran.

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