Iran’s government said it would continue to scale back its commitments outlined in the 2015 nuclear deal this week if the U.S. did not return to the agreement in full, first.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington would not come back to the deal and discuss the lifting of U.S. sanctions while Tehran continued to breach the terms of the agreement.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was open to diplomatic talks with Iran, but that discussions about the deal could not resume until Tehran confirmed that it would stop breaching the deal’s key limits, including restrictions on Iran’s uranium enrichment.
The ongoing deadlock between Tehran and Washington prompted France, which is a party to the deal, to arrange a meeting with the UK, the U.S and Germany to try to resolve the block. During the meeting, the countries re-iterated their commitment to bringing Iran into full compliance with the agreement.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said that a new strain of Covid-19 could lead to a fourth wave of coronavirus in the country, after the mutation was detected in Iran.
Iran’s health minister Saeed Namaki warned that the new strain was highly infectious and asked heads of medical colleges in Iran to prepare for a surge in cases.
At least nine towns and cities in southwestern Iran have been declared high-risk “red” zones following a sharp rise in infections.
And Iranian officials executed seven prisoners in one day, according to a report by Iran Human Rights Monitor.
The human rights watchdog said six men and one woman accused of murder were executed on Wednesday, bringing the total number of executions in Iran for February to at least 13.
Iran Human Rights Monitor said that Zahra Esmaili, the woman executed on February 17, was a victim of domestic violence and had killed her husband in self-defense.
Ms. Esmaili is the 114th woman to be executed during President Rouhani’s presidency.
