Iran’s foreign minister has issued a scathing response to the EU’s joint statement on the crumbling nuclear pact, saying the bloc has been bullied by the US “for a year” and needs to uphold its obligations under the deal.

EU statement today is why JCPOA is where it is: the US has bullied Europe—and rest of world—for a year and EU can only express “regret”.Instead of demanding that Iran unilaterally abide by a multilateral accord, EU should uphold obligations - incl normalization of economic ties. — Javad Zarif (@JZarif) May 9, 2019

Earlier Thursday, the EU and Foreign Ministers of France, Germany, and the UK issued a joint statement reaffirming their collective commitment to the Iran deal while also strongly hinting that US intrusion on Iran is unwelcome.

Also on rt.com EU warns ‘3rd parties’ not to impede Iran deal negotiations

That statement came a day after Tehran announced it would suspend some of its commitments under the 2015 deal, a year after the US pulled out of the agreement. Other signatories to the deal have 60 days to negotiate with Iran over its concerns, including that the European members of the deal haven’t done enough to uphold their own end of the deal and protect Iran from US sanctions.

US President Donald Trump responded to Wednesday’s announcement by introducing a raft of new sanctions on anyone who trades with Iran in iron, steel, copper, aluminum, and related products, escalating the economic blockade of Tehran.

Also on rt.com New Iran sanctions: Trump threatens anyone trading aluminum, iron, steel & copper

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