'Seriously?' asks Javad Zarif mocking US claims of Iran breaching nuclear accord

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday stressed that Tehran has not violated its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers after its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium breached the limit set in the historic accord.

In a statement on Monday, the White House said, "It was a mistake under the Iran nuclear deal to allow Iran to enrich uranium at any level."

"There is little doubt that even before the deal's existence, Iran was violating its terms," it added.

Making light of the US reaction on Tuesday, Zarif tweeted a screengrab of the statement, with the question: "Seriously?"

Tensions fuelled yesterday after Iran announced that its reserves of enriched uranium had surpassed the 300 kilograms cap and said its next step would be to enrich uranium above the 3.67 per cent limit in the accord, unless the member states of the European Union did more to protect the Iranian economy from harsh US sanctions, Al Jazeera reported.

Last year, Washington unilaterally withdrew from the deal, which set limits on Iran's nuclear activity in return for removing international sanctions on its economy. After leaving the accord, the US reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

The Foreign Minister, who has been personally targeted in the latest round of US sanctions, noted that the Iranian move did not violate the accord, whose remaining signatories include China, Russia, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

"We had previously announced this and were transparent in saying what we are going to do," he told reporters.

"We consider it our right, reserved in the nuclear deal," he added.

"Actions by the Europeans have not been enough, so we will move ahead with our plan," the Foreign Minister was quoted as saying.

The relationship between Washington and Tehran has been tense since the US withdrawal, with biting sanctions damaging Iran's oil exports and other key sectors of its slowing economy.

While the European powers have moved to create a trade mechanism to skirt the sanctions, known as INSTEX, Tehran has said it does not meet Iran's needs.