Making the remarks at a Cabinet meeting, the Iranian President underscored that while the enemy is applying maximum pressure on Iran the practical option for the Islamic country is resistance.
The US must understand that acting as a warmonger will not work nay more and it needs to leave such policies and putting pressure, Rouhani said.
“The Islamic Republic seeks peaceful nuclear technology and will act upon its commitments, under the JCPOA, if the other side does the same,” he said, “In case they do not, we will act the same.”
“The third step we took is not comparable to the two previous ones and if needed we will take other more steps as well,” he added.
Noting that the Islamic Republic has an international reputation of seeking peace, Rouhani said that “we have never started an aggression or any sanctions, we have never started breaking promises. They have done this.”
He added that "despite the imposed pressure by the enemy, our economic indices and conditions, including stock market index and froex revenues, are improving which proves that our resistance is bearing fruit."
Iran is further scaling back its commitments under the JCPOA due to the inability of its three European signatories -- the UK, France and Germany -- to meet their end of the bargain.
Upon announcing his withdrawal from the JCPOA, US President Trump called it the "worst deal ever" and pledged to force Iran through sanctions into renegotiating a new agreement that addresses its ballistic missiles and regional influence.
The Trump administration has ever since targeted Iran's industry and oil exports with various sanctions in a bid to cripple its economy.
The European side has also failed to deliver on its pledge to save mutual trade by enacting a special payment channel that protects European firms from US sanctions months after unveiling it in January.
Fed up with the foot-dragging, Iran announced the first stage of its countermeasures in May by increasing its enriched uranium stockpile to beyond the 300-kilogram cap set by the agreement.
The Islamic Republic took the second step two months later, when it started to enrich uranium to purity rates beyond the JCPOA limit of 3.76 percent.
Tehran officially started its third step on Friday (September 6) by activating 20 IR-4 and 20 IR-6 advanced research centrifuges.
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