Iran partially retreats on nuke deal

Iran yesterday announced it was scaling back curbs to its nuclear programme, announcing steps that stop short of violating its 2015 deal with world powers for now, but threatening more action if countries did not shield it from US sanctions.

A year to the day after Washington pulled out of the nuclear deal, Iran said it had stopped observing limits on its enriched uranium stocks with immediate effect and would abandon restrictions on the level of enrichment too if the remaining parties to the agreement fail to deliver on sanctions relief within 60 days.

Washington’s European allies opposed Trump’s decision to pull out and have tried, so far in vain, to find ways to blunt the economic impact of new US sanctions, which include an all-out effort to block Iran’s oil exports to starve its economy.

France, Germany, Britain yesterday said they wanted to keep the nuclear deal alive, and warned Iran not to violate it.