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 U.S. 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 U.S. withdrew from it in May last year.
The efforts have been led by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been trying to convince the U.S. 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,” Mr. Rouhani told a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Iran has long been threatening to carry out a third step by Friday unless other parties to the deal offset the effect of U.S. sanctions in return for its compliance.
It has already hit back twice with countermeasures in response to the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 deal.
He gave little away about what Iran’s next step might be, only saying it “may not seem very shocking but... it is extremely important”.