During a televised address at a cabinet meeting, President Hassan Rouhani announced today that Iran will suspend two commitments it had voluntarily pledged under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The decision was made on the anniversary of the US administration's pullout from the deal, which saw multiple economic sanctions reimposed on the Islamic Republic. 

With the new measures implemented, Iran will no longer adhere to arrangements related to its stock of low-enriched uranium, for which it had observed a 300-kilogram limit and exported overages. The same applies to Iran’s stockpile of heavy water, which was previously sent to Oman for storage whenever it went above 130 tons.

Rouhani's announcement, ratified by Iran's Supreme National Security Council, gives the European signatories to the nuclear deal a 60-day ultimatum to take practical steps toward easing reinstated US sanctions, particularly in the banking and oil sectors. More Iranian measures have already been outlined if Europe continues to fail to provide it the economic dividends promised by the accord, including the resumption of uranium enrichment above the current level of 3.67% and domestic development of the Arak heavy water reactor, whose calandria was destroyed as part of the JCPOA.

The details of the new steps have already been formally conveyed to the other deal signatories, namely the European Union, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. “After a year of patience, Iran stops measures that US has made impossible to continue," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted, insisting that what Iran is doing is no breach of the deal.