TEHRAN – Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi has strongly criticized U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus for her anti-Iran remarks, saying such words are too awkward from a regime which sponsors terrorism.

Ortagus tweeted on Thursday that “Iran’s latest nuclear escalations reflect the regime’s intentions to extort the international community into accepting its violence and terror while it undermines the sovereignty of its neighbors. The U.S. urges all nations to reject this behavior and increase pressure on Iran.”

“Isn’t it a little too awkward to hear these words from a regime which is indeed the leadership of outlawry & unilateralism, and the creator, supporter & sponsor of terrorism?!” Mousavi said on his Twitter account hours later.

Iran on Wednesday took the fourth step in reducing its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in reaction to the continued failure of the European parties to meet their obligations to the agreement.

In May 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA.

Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the JCPOA after the U.S. withdrawal, but the three EU parties to the deal (France, Britain, and Germany) have failed to ensure Iran’s economic interests.

Iran started to partially reduce commitments under the nuclear deal exactly a year after the U.S. abandoned the deal and imposed the harshest ever sanctions on the country under the “maximum pressure” policy. At the time Iran announced that its “strategic patience” is over.

On Wednesday, Iran started to inject uranium gas into centrifuges at the Fordow nuclear facility under the supervision of inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog.

“At the presence of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran started injecting gas into centrifuges in Fordow,” the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said.

MH/PA