TEHRAN 7 Jul (ANA) - Iran has announced it will break a limit set on uranium enrichment, in breach of the landmark 2015 deal designed to curb its nuclear ambitions. 

Deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran still wanted to salvage the deal but blamed European countries for failing to live up to their own commitments. 

The US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018.

It has since reimposed tight sanctions affecting the Iranian economy. 

The Iranian announcement marks the latest breach of the accord. 

In May, Iran announced it would step up its production of enriched uranium, which can be used to make fuel for reactors but also for nuclear weapons. 

The country has already stockpiled more enriched uranium than permitted under the terms of the deal.

Iran has strongly denied that it has any intention of building nuclear weapons.

On the anniversary of the US withdrawal, Iran gave a 60-day deadline to the remaining signatories of the deal - China, France, Germany, Russia and the UK - to protect it from US sanctions. 

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday at the end of that deadline, Mr Araqshi said Iran would start enriching uranium above a concentration of 3.67% within a few hours, to provide fuel for its Bushehr power plant.

Officials previously said this would mean a concentration of about 5%. Weapons-grade uranium is 90% enriched or more.

However, Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said that Iran would not be making fuel for its Tehran reactor, which requires a concentration of 20%.

"We will enrich uranium based on our needs," he said. "Right now we don't need to enrich uranium for the Tehran reactor."(ANA)

FA/ANA/7 July 2019------