Iran's enriched uranium stockpile has passed the 300-kilogram limit under its nuclear deal, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Monday, citing an unnamed "informed source."
Iranian officials have said in recent days that Tehran is on track to pass the enriched uranium limit, which was set under its 2015 nuclear deal, after remaining signatories to the pact fell short of its demands to be shielded from US sanctions. The US pulled out of the deal in May 2018.
Speaking to journalists in Tehran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif acknowledged Iran that broken through the limit.
"We had previously announced this and we have said it transparently what we are going to do," he said. "We are going to act according to what we have announced and we consider it our right reserved in the nuclear deal."
The "actions of the Europeans have not been enough so Iran will move ahead with its plans as it has previously announced," he added. "We are in the process of doing our first phase of actions both on increasing our stockpile of enriched uranium as well as our heavy water reserves."
The US and Iran have been drawn into starker confrontation since May, when Washington mounted pressure on Tehran by ordering all countries to halt imports of Iranian oil, and the future of the nuclear accord hangs in the balance.
Washington has tightened sanctions and dispatched extra forces to the Middle East, and US fighter jets came within minutes of conducting air strikes on Iran last month after Tehran downed an unmanned American drone.
In reaction to the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran said in May that it had quadrupled its production of low enriched uranium.
In last-ditch talks in Vienna on Friday to persuade Iran to back off from its plans to breach the limits, Iran’s envoy said European countries still party to the nuclear deal had offered too little in return.
