Iran announces it will not honor any part of the nuclear deal

(JTA)—Iran will no longer honor the nuclear deal it signed with world powers.

The announcement came Sunday following a meeting of the Islamic Republic’s National Security Council to discuss the country’s nuclear policy following the assassination on Friday of Qassem Soleimani by the United States, The New York Times reported. Soleimani was the head of the Iranian Quds Force, which operates a number of regional militias and is allied with terrorist groups targeting Israel, including Hezbollah and Hamas.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will end its final limitations in the nuclear deal, meaning the limitation in the number of centrifuges. Therefore, Iran’s nuclear program will have no limitations in production including enrichment capacity and percentage and number of enriched uranium and research and expansion,” read a statement released after the Sunday meeting, the Times reported.

Since the Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed, and reimposed economic sanctions, Iran had begun to abrogate many parts of the deal, including exceeding the nuclear enrichment level set by the deal and operating advanced centrifuges.

China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union have remained committed to the pact.

The Iranian government said it would return to the nuclear deal if the sanctions against it were removed.