Iran 'justified' in breaking nuclear deal's terms: Zarif

Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday defended his country's plan to take further steps away from the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.

He said this was justified because it was in response to American sanctions.

"The measures that we have taken have been prescribed in the JCPOA (nuclear accord), in paragraph 36 of the JCPOA, as remedies for the United States' withdrawal, its reimposition of illegal restrictions on Iran, which we call economic terrorism," he said.  

Zarif was speaking in Jakarta after talks with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi.

The meeting came hours after Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that Iran would halt its commitments on research and development as a third step to move away from the nuclear deal.

The accord has been unravelling for the past year, following Washington's decision to withdraw from it.

Iran has yet to say officially what exact steps it will take as a deadline it gave Europeans to salvage the deal is to expire on Friday.

However, centrifuges that speed enrichment would further shorten the time Tehran would need to have enough material available to build a nuclear weapon - if it chose to do so.