Iran on Wednesday said it would take another step away from a 2015 nuclear deal by starting to develop centrifuges to speed up its uranium enrichment but it also gave European powers two more months to try to save the multilateral pact.
Separately, the United States refused to ease its economic sanctions on Iran, and imposed fresh ones designed to choke off the smuggling of Iranian oil, and rebuffed but did not rule out a French plan to give Tehran a $15 billion credit line.
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The moves suggested that Iran, the United States, and the major European powers may be leaving the door open for diplomacy to try to resolve a dispute over Iran's nuclear program even as they largely stuck to entrenched positions.
The friction has intensified since US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 international accord last year, under which Iran had agreed to rein in its atomic program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
Washington has since renewed and intensified its sanctions, slashing Iran's crude oil sales by more than 80%.
Trump again said that he was open to the possibility of meeting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani but made clear he had no intention of easing sanctions.
"That's not happening," he said. "That won't be happening."
In a televised address, Rouhani said that starting Friday, Iran will begin developing centrifuges to speed up the enrichment of uranium, which can produce fuel for power plants or atomic bombs as part of the next step in reducing its nuclear commitments.
Under the accord, Iran was allowed to keep restricted quantities of first-generation centrifuges at two nuclear plants. The successful development of more advanced centrifuges would enable it to produce material for a potential nuclear bomb several times faster.
"From Friday, we will witness research and development on different kinds of centrifuges and new centrifuges and also whatever is needed for enriching uranium in an accelerated way," Rouhani said. "All limitations on our Research and Development will be lifted on Friday."
Iran says it is only enriching uranium to fuel nuclear power plants, but the United States has long suspected the program ultimately aims to produce nuclear weapons.
Since Washington's withdrawal from the pact, Tehran has made two other moves in violation of the deal, although Iran says it still aims to save the agreement.
Rouhani had threatened to take further measures by Sept. 5 unless France and the other European signatories of the pact do more to protect Iran from the impact of the US penalties, which have drastically reduced Iran's foreign oil sales.
A French diplomatic source voiced regret at Iran's planned centrifuge development.
"It's not helpful," said the source. "We knew it wouldn't be ... a bed of roses," he said, adding that France would keep looking for a solution.
Iranian officials, meanwhile, appeared to give a guarded welcome to a French proposal to save the pact by offering Iran about $15 billion in credit lines until the end of the year if Tehran returned to full compliance.
The United States was cool to the idea but did not categorically reject it.
"We did sanctions today. There will be more sanctions coming. We can't make it any more clear that we are committed to this campaign of maximum pressure and we are not looking to grant any exceptions or waivers," Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran, told reporters.
Washington on Wednesday blacklisted what it called an "oil for terror" network of firms, ships and people it suspects are directed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with supplying Syria with oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The United States also issued a new international shipping advisory about IRGC's use of "deceptive practices" to violate US sanctions and warned those who do business with blacklisted entities that they may suffer US sanctions.
Washington also offered a reward of up to $15 million for information that disrupts the IRGC's financial operations and its elite paramilitary and espionage arm, the Quds Force.
A US official said the administration sought last week to convince the captain of an Iranian oil tanker recently detained and released by the British territory of Gibraltar to accept a cash payment in return for halting the vessel's course. The captain did not respond to the offer and on Friday the administration added him to the sanctions blacklist as well, according to the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Financial Times, which first reported the incident, said Hook made the offer. The envoy did not comment on the report but noted that anyone involved in transporting Iranian oil in violation of the sanctions could face consequences. "The criminal liability and immigration consequences of crewing Iranian tankers are real and not worth the risk," Hook said.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denounced the offer to the ship's captain as "outright blackmail."
"Having failed at piracy, the US resorts to outright blackmail – deliver us Iran's oil and receive several million dollars or be sanctioned yourself," he said on Twitter.
The steps intensified the US campaign to eliminate Iran's oil exports as a way to pressure it to restrict its nuclear and missile programs as well as its support for regional terror proxies.
