The United States said Wednesday it was ending waivers in its sanctions for nations that remain in the Iran nuclear accord, bringing the deal further to the verge of collapse.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was responding to Iran's "brinkmanship" - its series of small but defiant nuclear steps, aimed at pressuring the United States to remove sanctions as called for by the 2015 accord.
"These escalatory actions are unacceptable and I cannot justify renewing the waiver," Pompeo said in a statement.
President Donald Trump bolted from the agreement negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, under which Iran had drastically curbed its nuclear activities.
But the Trump administration until now had issued waivers to allow companies, primarily from Russia, to keep carrying out the work of the agreement without risking legal ramifications in the world's largest economy.
The United States will notably do away with the waivers that allowed the modification of the heavy water reactor in Arak, which prevented it from using plutonium for military use, as well as the export of spent and scrap research reactor fuel.
Pompeo said that the United States was issuing a final 60-day waiver to allow companies involved in the projects to wrap up operations.
The Trump administration in the past had tacitly acknowledged benefits from letting other nations continue the nuclear deal. In an extension in May 2019, the State Department said the waiver for Arak would help to "prevent it from becoming a factory for weapons-grade plutonium."