The United States had made the move in a bid "to distract public opinion from its continued defeats at the hands of Iran," said Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.

"Ending waivers for nuclear cooperation with Iran... has effectively no impact on Iran's continued work" on what the Islamic republic insists is a purely civilian nuclear energy programme, Kamalvandi said in a statement published on the agency's website.