He made the remarks in a televised interview on Sky News on Tuesday, after that Tehran announced a fourth step in downgrading its contractual obligations under the nuclear deal on the same day.
“We’re doing this because we want to salvage the nuclear deal from total collapse,” he said, “Because, in fact, the other sides have not been able to live up to their obligations, and Iran is resorting to certain actions to ensure that the deal will stand."
In a Twitter message on Tuesday, the Iranian ambassador called on the remaining signatories to the JCPOA to abide by their commitments.
"Iran, in its 4th step of reducing its commitments, will feed the centrifuges at the Fordow facility with gas," Baeidinejad wrote in his Twitter account on Tuesday.
He added: "This measure would be implemented under IAEA monitoring and would be reversible if other parties decide to implement their shares of commitments under the nuclear deal."
Earlier on Tuesday, President Hassan Rouhani announced that Tehran would begin to inject uranium gas into centrifuges at its Fordow enrichment facility on Wednesday, as a third 60-day deadline for the European co-signatories to fulfill their side of the deal expired. Located in central Iran, Fordow houses 1,044 centrifuges.
The deal came about in Vienna in July 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 group of states — the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany. It lifted nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran, which, in turn, voluntarily changed some aspects of its nuclear energy program.
The US, however, left the accord last May and reinstated the sanctions.
The European deal partners, meanwhile, bowed to Washington’s pressure after they failed to honor their obligation to protect the Iranian economy in the face of America’s “toughest ever” bans.
MNA/FNA 13980815000034
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