Iran warns of further retreat from nuke deal

President Hassan Rouhani

Tehran: President Hassan Rouhani said Iran will announce a new step in scaling back its nuclear commitments by Thursday despite a diplomatic push for relief from US sanctions. Iran and three European countries - Britain, France and Germany - have been engaged in talks to save a 2015 nuclear deal that has been unravelling since the US withdrew from it in May last year.

The efforts have been led by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been trying to convince the US to offer Iran some sort of relief from crippling sanctions it has reimposed on the Islamic republic since its pullout. "I don't think that... we will reach a deal so we'll take the third step and we will announce the details today or tomorrow," Rouhani said.

The Iranian president said the two sides were getting closer to an agreement. "If we had 20 issues of disagreement with the Europeans in the past, today there are three issues," he said. "Most of them have been resolved but we haven't reached a final agreement."

Iran has long been threatening to carry out a third step by Friday unless other parties to the deal offset the effect of US sanctions in return for its continued compliance. It has already hit back twice with countermeasures in response to the US withdrawal from the 2015 deal.

Iran sets free 7 crew members from seized British tanker

The Iranian authorities released on humanitarian grounds seven of the 23 crew members on a detained British-flagged oil tanker on Wednesday. Iran impounded the Stena Impero vessel on July 19 in the Strait of Hormuz for allegedly breaking international maritime rules, causing tensions with Britain as it made a proposal for naval missions to escort ships in the Persian Gulf.

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