Iran to raise uranium enrichment beyond deal limit "within hours"

Iran says it is raising its enrichment of uranium beyond the limit set by its unraveling 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Tehran: Amid the ongoing tussle with the US, Iran has announced to raise its uranium enrichment beyond its nuclear deal limits with world powers.

A spokesman for Iran's atomic energy department (IAEA), Behrouz Kamalvandi said that enrichment beyond the permitted level of 3.67% would begin "within hours".

Earlier President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the nuclear deal.

After the US had imposed sanctions to block Iranian crude oil from being sold on the world market.

In response, Iran on July 1 acknowledged breaking the deal's 300-kilogram (661-pound) limit on its low-enriched uranium stockpile.

Earlier today French President Emmanuel Macron and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani have agreed to look at conditions for resuming talks to save Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.

Experts warn higher enrichment and a growing stockpile narrows the one-year window Iran would need to have enough material for an atomic bomb, something Iran denies it wants but the deal prevented.