A year after US pullout from agreement, Iran says it is no longer committed to parts of the deal with world powers.

Iran will resume high-level enrichment of uranium if world powers do not keep their promises under a 2015 nuclear agreement, President Hassan Rouhani said.

In a speech broadcast on national television on Wednesday, Rouhani said the remaining signatories – the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China and Russia – had 60 days to implement their promises to protect Iran’s oil and banking sectors from US sanctions.

Rouhani said Iran wanted to negotiate new terms with remaining partners in the deal, but acknowledged the situation was dire.

“We felt that the nuclear deal needs a surgery and the painkiller pills of the last year have been ineffective,” Rouhani said. “This surgery is for saving the deal, not destroying it.”

The move comes a year after United States President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the landmark nuclear accord.

Since then, the US has restored crippling economic sanctions on Iran, even as Tehran continued to abide by the deal, according to United Nations inspectors.

Rouhani announced Iran would roll back some of its commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement, saying it would keep excess enriched uranium, instead of selling it as called for under the deal.

Britain said Iran’s announcement was disconcerting.

“We are extremely concerned about this announcement and urge Iran to continue to meet its commitments under the deal and not to take escalatory steps,” Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman told reporters.

“This deal is a crucial agreement which makes the world safer and we will ensure it remains in place for as long as Iran upholds these commitments.”

Germany urged the Iranian government not to take any aggressive steps. A government spokesman added Berlin wants to keep the Iran nuclear deal, and said Berlin would fully stick to its commitments as long as Iran does the same.

Spokesman Steffen Seibert said work on setting up a special purpose vehicle for business with Iran is taking longer than expected.

“Currently, the last steps need to be taken for this corporation to be able to operate – that includes Iran making the necessary preparations on its side,” Seibert told a regular government news conference.

The United States warned European banks, investors and businesses against engaging with the so-called special purpose vehicle (SPV), a Europe-backed system to facilitate non-dollar trade with Iran and circumvent US sanctions.

“If you are a bank, an investor, an insurer or other business in Europe you should know that getting involved in the … special purpose vehicle is a very poor business decision,” Tim Morrison, special assistant to the president, told a conference.

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