Iran to scale down further commitments to nuke deal

TEHRAN

Iran will begin the fourth step of decreasing its commitments to the 2015 nuclear agreement, President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday.

"By tomorrow, we will move towards the fourth step and of course, we are already announcing this to the world and to our friendly countries," Rouhani said in statements cited by local media.

He said Tehran on Wednesday will begin gas injection into the Fordow centrifuges.

"Our new activity will be monitored by the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]," he said.

Rouhani said Iran's moves to scale down its commitments are reversible in case the signatory countries to the nuclear deal fully abide by their commitments.

Iran started to cut its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal in a retaliatory move following the U.S. unilateral decision to withdraw from the agreement between Tehran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and the EU.

The U.S. has since embarked upon a diplomatic and economic campaign to ramp up pressure on Iran to force it to renegotiate the agreement.

The deal allows Iran to reduce its commitments in case of other parties' breaches. Tehran insists the EU to act more actively regarding the implementation of its part of obligations, saying it will return to the full compliance with the deal once the EU has nullified the U.S. sanctions.

*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara