Iran to ramp up nuclear work: Rouhani

Bloomberg

Iran said it was unlikely to reach a much-anticipated agreement with Europe in time to avert another Iranian retreat from the limping nuclear deal, but gave European powers two more months to try to keep the accord alive.
While president Hassan Rouhani said his country would unveil on Thursday further plans to ramp up its atomic activities, the extension offered to European leaders signalled he was in no rush to scuttle the 2015 accord that’s been foundering ever since the US pulled out a year ago.
Europe will use that time to try to find a way around punishing American sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, the backbone of its economy.
“What we see here is a continued effort by Tehran to show the world, Europe in particular, but also the US, that it means business when it says it has means to resist, to strike back, to retaliate,” said Adnan Tabatabaei, Iran analyst and chief executive of Bonn-based Centre for Applied Research in Partnership With the Orient.
At the same time, “we see again this notion of reversibility,” Tabatei said, “and with that Iran wants to show that it is not giving up” on the accord just yet.
Tehran has warned for weeks that if the European Union, a partner in the multilateral agreement, couldn’t work out a mechanism by September 6 that would allow Iran to export oil, it would embark upon the third and most significant stage of its plan to gradually scale back its commitments.
Rouhani said he didn’t expect a resolution by the deadline, according to comments he made at a cabinet meeting.