Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Photo: Xinhua

Iran on Thursday accused ­European governments of sacrificing a troubled 2015 nuclear deal to avoid trade reprisals from US President Donald Trump.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the decision by Britain, France and Germany to heed US pressure to lodge a complaint on Tuesday alleging violation of the deal by Iran deprived them of any right to claim the moral high ground.

The three governments "sold out remnants of #JCPOA [the nuclear deal] to avoid new Trump tariffs," Zarif charged.

He was alluding to a report by The Washington Post on Wednesday that cited European sources as saying that the Trump administration had renewed a threat to impose a 25 percent tariff on European car exports if the three governments held back.

The European states initiated a dispute mechanism process set up under the deal, which allows a party to claim significant noncompliance by another party before a joint commission, with appeals possible to an advisory board and ultimately to the UN Security Council.

Since the US pulled out of the agreement and reimposed crippling unilateral sanctions in 2018, EU governments have sought to find a way to allow European businesses to continue trading with Iran without incurring huge US penalties.