Hawzah News Agency - (Tehran - Iran) - Tehran's provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani blasted the US for its rhetoric against the Islamic Republic, and said that Tehran needs enriched uranium to overcome its electricity shortages.

Addressing a large and fervent congregation of the people in Tehran on Friday, Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani said, "Iran will keep on its uranium enrichment to generate electricity and not for producing atomic bomb, because Iran neither considers atomic bomb as legitimate nor needs it."

The senior cleric pointed to Iran's decision to reduce obligations regarding the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and said that if the European partners to the deal fail to comply with their commitments, "Iran will continue to increase its uranium stockpiles".

As part of the first phase of scaling down its commitments, Iran exceeded the 300-kilogram limit set by the JCPOA on its low-enriched uranium stockpiles.

Iran is set to begin the second phase on July 7, the day when the 60-day deadline it had given the Europeans will be over.

In the second phase, Iran’s Arak heavy water nuclear reactor — which was agreed to be redesigned under the agreement — will resume its previous activities.

Iran will also increase the level of its uranium enrichment, and will no longer stick to the 3.67% limit it had agreed upon in JCPOA.

The moves, Iran says, are aimed at prompting the Europeans to honor their end of the bargain.

Britain, France, and Germany in January introduced a special trade mechanism, known as the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (Instex), in order to facilitate doing business with Tehran in the face of the US sanctions.