Europeans are hypocrites for condemning nuclear-deal breach

Iran accused European nations trying to salvage the moribund 2015 nuclear deal of hypocrisy for criticising and threatening to reimpose sanctions after Tehran took a major step away from the historic agreement.

President Hasan Rouhani on Tuesday said the UK, France, Germany, and the European Union have failed to uphold their end of the bargain to protect Tehran from "maximum pressure" sanctions imposed by the United States in the wake of Washington's withdrawal from the deal in 2018.

Rouhani said Iran only began scaling back its nuclear commitments a year after the US withdrawal to give the other parties time to uphold their pledges under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"We waited for a year," Rouhani told a televised news conference. "Nobody in the world can blame us by saying 'why are you abandoning your commitments under the JCPOA?'

"This is a problem that the enemy has created for us," he said, referring to Iran's rival the US.