Iran warns to further reduce nuclear commitments

 Iran's Foreign Ministry on Monday announced that the country was ready to further reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, unless its interests were secured by the signatories.

Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that "we hope parties to the nuclear deal take special measures (to protect Iran's interests) pertaining to the deal, otherwise, we are ready to take the fourth step", reports Xinhua news agency.

As a reaction to the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018 and its subsequent sanctions on Iran and Europe's sluggishness to save Tehran's interests under the deal, the Islamic Republic started reducing its nuclear commitments from May this year.

The agreement places significant limitations on Iran's nuclear programme to prevent the country from making atomic bombs.

Last month, Iran had activated advanced centrifuges to boost its reserves of enriched uranium.

As a third step in Iran's reduction of commitments under the deal, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) activated 20 IR-4 and 20 IR-6 centrifuges.

A total of 20 such centrifuges are now operational.

Iran has also started to enrich uranium at 4.5 per cent, more than the 3.67 per cent stipulated by the deal and began to exceed its permitted reserves of enriched uranium, which were set at 300 kg.IANS