Russia on Thursday urged Iran to show restraint after it started producing uranium metal in a new breach of limits laid out in Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.
"We understand the logic of their actions and the reasons prompting Iran. Despite this it is necessary to show restraint and a responsible approach," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency RIA Novosti.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement on Wednesday that on February 8, it "verified 3.6 grams of uranium metal at Iran's Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant in Esfahan".
IAEA director general Rafael Grossi informed member states of the new violation, the statement added.
The landmark deal -- reached in 2015 by the United States, China, Russia, Germany, France and Britain -- contained a 15-year ban on "producing or acquiring plutonium or uranium metals or their alloys".
The deal says that after 10 years, Iran would have been allowed to initiate research on producing uranium metal-based fuel "in small agreed quantities," but only if the other parties had given approval.
The new violation comes a month after Iran announced it had stepped up its uranium enrichment process to 20 percent purity, far above the 3.67 percent level permitted by the deal but far below the amount required for an atomic bomb.
Ryabkov said Iran's move demonstrated Tehran's "determination not to put up with the current situation," after it warned that time was running out for US President Joe Biden's administration to save the agreement.
In 2018, US president Donald Trump dramatically withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed crippling economic sanctions on Tehran.
