Deadline past, Iran to set new nuke steps

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Iran’s foreign minister defended his country’s plan to take further steps away from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers as Europe worked to provide a solution on reviving it by a deadline that expired Friday.

The remarks by Mohammad Javad Zarif came as Iran is poised to begin work on advanced centrifuges that will enrich uranium faster as the nuclear deal unravels.

The crisis stems from President Donald Trump’s pullout from the accord over a year ago and the imposition of escalated U.S. sanctions on Tehran that have choked off Iran’s ability to sell its crude oil abroad and sent its economy into free fall.

Meanwhile, a last-minute French proposal offering a $15 billion line of credit to compensate Iran over the choked-off crude sales looked increasingly unlikely.

In Jakarta, Zarif insisted Iran’s nuclear program remained peaceful and lashed out at the U.S.

“Unfortunately, the U.S. not only doesn’t normalize economic relations with Iran, but punishes others for normalizing economic relations with Iran, which is totally unacceptable,” Zarif said.

Iran’s atomic energy agency was to make an announcement today detailing its next nuclear step.

European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said Friday that the European Union notes “with great concern the announcement made by Iran.”

“We urge Iran to reverse all activities that are inconsistent with its commitments” under the accord and to “refrain from any further measures that undermine the preservation and full implementation of the nuclear deal,” she said.