Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday defended his country's plan to take further steps away from the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.

He said this was justified because it was in response to American sanctions.

"The measures that we have taken have been prescribed in the JCPOA (nuclear accord), in paragraph 36 of the JCPOA, as remedies for the United States' withdrawal, its reimposition of illegal restrictions on Iran, which we call economic terrorism," he said.  

Zarif was speaking in Jakarta after talks with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi.

The meeting came hours after Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that Iran would halt its commitments on research and development as a third step to move away from the nuclear deal.

The accord has been unravelling for the past year, following Washington's decision to withdraw from it.

Iran has yet to say officially what exact steps it will take as a deadline it gave Europeans to salvage the deal is to expire Friday.

However, centrifuges that speed enrichment would further shorten the time Tehran would need to have enough material available to build a nuclear weapon - if it chose to do so.

++QUALITY AS INCOMING++

Jakarta - 6 September 2019  

1. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Indonesian counterpart, Retno Marsudi

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran foreign minister

"I explained to her how Iran has been trying to safeguard this agreement which constitutes an achievement of diplomacy. The measures that we have taken have been prescribed in the JCPOA (nuclear accord), in paragraph 36 of the JCPOA, as remedies for the United States' withdrawal, its reimposition of illegal restrictions on Iran, which we call economic terrorism because they target ordinary Iranian citizens. President Trump calls them warfare. We call them terrorism because they target the citizens, the civilians of Iran and also the failure of the Europeans to implement their part of the bargain."

++BLACK++

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran foreign minister

"We have said repeatedly that the minute they come back into compliance we are prepared to reverse the measures, the temporary measures that we have taken in order to remedy the non-compliance that they've had with the JCPOA. And we also, like our Indonesian friends, call on everybody to fully implement JCPOA and Security Council resolution 2231 which rest on two premises: Iran's nuclear program remaining peaceful, and normalization of economic relations with Iran."

++BLACK++

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran foreign minister

"Unfortunately the United States not only does it (not) normalize its own economic relations with Iran but punishes others for normalizing economic relations with Iran, which is totally unacceptable."

++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++