Iran steps up N-programme, holds South Korean tanker

TEHRAN: Iran said on Tuesday it had stepped up uranium enrichment beyond the limits of its nuclear deal with world powers, amid heightened tensions with arch-foe the United States and after Iran seized a South Korean tanker in strategic Gulf waters.

The Islamic republic said it was now refining uranium to 20 percent purity -- far above the level permitted under its 2015 agreement, but significantly below the 90 percent required for an atomic bomb -- in a step Washington condemned as "nuclear extortion".

The European Union noted Iran’s steps "with deep concern" and planned to "redouble our efforts to preserve the agreement and return to its full implementation by all parties," said EU spokesman Peter Stano.

It was the most striking suspension yet of Tehran’s commitments under its landmark deal with six nations, which has been fraying ever since US President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions.

A war of words has flared again in the final weeks of the Trump presidency and at a time when Iran and its allies have marked one year since a US drone strike in Baghdad killed Iran’s most revered military commander, Qasem Soleimani.

Commemorations honouring Soleimani -- whom the US blamed for attacks on its interests in Iraq and elsewhere -- saw angry mourners in Iraq chant anti-US slogans, but passed off without violence.