Iran said on Wednesday it would not give European powers more time beyond July 8 to save its nuclear deal by shielding it from US sanctions. The spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said Tehran was ready to go through with a threat to enrich uranium to a higher level if Europe did not step in, a move that would breach the terms of a nuclear pact with world powers. Any such breach would raise already heightened tensions between Iran and US President Donald Trump who has said he is ready to take military action to stop Tehran getting a nuclear bomb. Tehran said in May it would reduce compliance with the nuclear pact it agreed with world powers in 2015, in protest at the United States' decision to unilaterally pull out of the agreement and reimpose sanctions last year. Iran added that it would start enriching uranium at a higher level unless other European signatories to the deal protected its economy from the US sanctions within 60 days. "Iran's two-month deadline to remaining signatories of the JCPOA (nuclear deal) cannot be extended, and the second phase will be implemented exactly as planned," atomic agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency. President Hassan Rohani said Iran's actions were the "minimum" measures Tehran could adopt one year after the US withdrawal from the deal, but said they were reversible. "If our demands are not met, we will take new measures after 60 days, calculated from May 8," Rohani said in a cabinet meeting broadcast on state television. — Reuters
