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Khamenei: Iran to keep rolling back nuclear commitments by Staff Writers Tehran (AFP) July 16, 2019 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that the Islamic republic will keep rolling back its commitments under the landmark 2015 nuclear deal. "You did not carry out a single one (of your commitments), why do you want us to stick to our commitments?" Khamenei said, criticising European countries which are party to the deal. "We have just started to decrease our commitments (in the deal) and this process will certainly continue," he said in a speech in Tehran partly aired on state television. Iran-US tensions have soared since last year when President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the hard-won 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions on the Islamic republic. Angered that its beleaguered economy is not receiving sanctions relief it believes was promised under the deal, Iran has intensified its sensitive uranium enrichment work. Iran announced last week that it had enriched uranium past the 3.67 percent limit set by the nuclear deal, and it has also surpassed the 300-kilogram cap on enriched uranium reserves. European parties to the deal have called on Iran to return to its commitments under the deal. On Sunday, President Hassan Rouhani said Iran had changed its strategy from one of "patience to that of retaliation". "If they decrease then we too shall decrease our commitments (in the deal)... If they fully implement their commitments than we too shall fully implement ours," he said, quoted by the government website dolat.ir. Tensions have since soared, with the US calling off air strikes against Iran at the last minute after Tehran downed an American drone, and Washington blaming Tehran for a series of attacks on tanker ships. On July 4, British forces helped Gibraltar authorities detain an Iranian tanker which US officials said had been trying to deliver oil to Syria in violation of separate sets of EU and US sanctions -- claims denied by Iran. In his speech on Tuesday, Khamenei vowed to retaliate against the British for the ship's seizure. "The vicious British... have committed piracy and stolen our ship... God willing the Islamic republic will not leave these vicious acts unanswered," he said.
Trump says US not seeking 'regime change' in Iran "We are not looking for regime change. We are not looking for that at all," Trump said during a cabinet meeting. "They can't have a nuclear weapon." The United States quit an international deal aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program last year, hitting Tehran with crippling sanctions. Iran said last week that it had enriched uranium past the 3.67 percent limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal, and has also surpassed the 300-kilogram cap on enriched uranium reserves. Tensions have soared since Trump pulled out of the deal, with the US calling off air strikes against Iran at the last minute after Tehran downed an American drone, and Washington blaming the Islamic republic for a series of attacks on tanker ships. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned on Monday that the United States is "playing with fire." According to leaked diplomatic cables published at the weekend, Britain's ambassador to Washington believed Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal because it was associated with his predecessor Barack Obama. "The administration is set upon an act of diplomatic vandalism, seemingly for ideological and personality reasons -- it was Obama's deal," wrote the envoy, Kim Darroch, who resigned amid a storm triggered by the release of the sensitive documents.
EU holds Iran nuclear crisis talks as Tehran issues fresh threats Brussels (AFP) July 15, 2019 European foreign ministers held crisis talks Monday on saving the beleaguered Iran nuclear deal as Britain warned the "small window" for success was closing and Tehran issued fresh threats of restarting its atomic programme. Tensions in the Gulf have soared since last year, when the United States pulled out of the 2015 deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran, hammering its economy and prompting Tehran to break limits on uranium enrichment and stockpiling. The European Union is desperately trying to ... read more
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