Trump administration renews four restrictions on Iran's nuclear program amid Coronavirus crisis

Washington: The Trump administration on Monday decided to renew four restrictions on Iran's nuclear program for the next 60 days making it harder for Tehran to develop further nuclear weapons.

"US is renewing four nuclear restrictions on Iran for an additional 60 days. We'll closely monitor developments in Iran's nuclear program and can adjust these restrictions at any time. As President Trump said, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon," Morgan Ortagus, US State Department spokesperson said in a statement.

These restrictions are based on Iran's continued nuclear program which "is unacceptable", she added.

The move by the Trump administration, which in 2018 withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran, will allow non-proliferation work to continue at the Arak heavy-water research reactor, the Bushehr nuclear power plant, the Tehran Research Reactor, and other nuclear initiatives.

As part of its "maximum pressure" campaign, the United States has not only restored sanctions it had removed under the Iran nuclear deal but has also tightened them to try to pressurise Iran to curb its nuclear and missile activities.

"We will continue to use the full range of our diplomatic and economic tools to constrain Iran's destabilizing proliferation activities. We will continue to closely monitor all developments in Iran's nuclear program and can adjust these restrictions at any time," the statement read.

The restrictions related to non-proliferation work on the Middle East country are designed to make the Iranian nuclear program less capable of producing weapons.