Iran's Foreign Ministry said US President Donald Trump is looking for an excuse to end the Iran nuclear deal.

"No matter what the reason, we will not let it happen," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement yesterday, adding that the country would address the issue at a meeting planned in Vienna on Tuesday to discuss the implementation of the agreement.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had criticised the deal - known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - saying that it did not reach its aim of stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

The agreement was ratified in July 2015 by Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany.

It permits Iran to use nuclear power for civil purposes, but not to build nuclear weapons. Iran is prohibited from undertaking any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, under UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

The US State Department last month announced a range of new sanctions, including 11 specifically against companies or individuals for transfers of "sensitive items" to the Iranian ballistic missile programme.

Iran said at the time that the new US sanctions had been imposed on the basis of "fabricated and illegitimate pretexts" and were against the "word and spirit of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action".

- dpa