Iran's foreign minister defended his country's plan to take further steps away from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers if Europe fails to provide a solution on reviving it by a deadline that expires 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 European Union, meanwhile, expressed concern about Iran's plan to defy provisions of the agreement and urged the Islamic Republic to step back from the brink.
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, a crucial source of government revenue, and sent its economy into freefall.
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.
Zarif did not say what exact steps his country would take as he met with his Indonesian counterpart, Retno Marsudi, in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.
Zarif described the U.S. sanctions as "illegal restrictions on Iran, which we call economic terrorism ... because they target ordinary Iranian citizens, the civilians."
European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said Friday that the EU notes "with great concern the announcement made by Iran."
Also Friday, German Foreign Ministry spokesman Rainer Breul said Iran was not sending the "right statement" with its announcement and urged Tehran "not to exacerbate the situation."
"The German government will carefully examine which individual steps Iran takes," he said. "It's not too late for Iran to leave the slope it has put itself on."
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