(Bloomberg) -- Iran’s plan to scale back some of the commitments it signed up to under the 2015 nuclear deal after a year of bruising U.S. sanctions could ratchet tensions higher after the Trump administration sent an aircraft carrier to the Gulf.

In an announcement expected on Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani won’t follow Trump in abandoning the accord but will make minor changes to pledges agreed four years ago, state-run Iranian Students News Agency reported, citing an official. Iran’s plans have been communicated informally to the European Union, the official said, without giving details of the proposed steps.

Tehran will be messaging Europe, China and Russia that “Iranian compliance shouldn’t be taken at face value,” said Sanam Vakil, senior research fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Program. “They either have to step up or this deal is definitely going to unravel.”

The nuclear accord, reached after years of painstaking multilateral negotiations led by the U.S., put strict limits on Iran’s nuclear activities in return for lifting most international sanctions. Trump, though, has made countering Iran’s role in the Middle East a major focus of his foreign policy, backed by Tehran’s foes in the Gulf and Israel.

The U.S. built on the economic pressure early this month by letting waivers allowing eight governments to import Iranian oil expire, in its drive to cut Iran’s oil exports to zero and force the country to withdraw from regional conflicts. On Sunday, the U.S. said it was deploying the aircraft carrier strike group in an “unmistakable message” to Iran that it would meet any aggression with “unrelenting force.”

For months, Iranian officials have signaled that they’re losing patience with a deal that’s providing very few of the promised economic benefits. In its report on Monday, ISNA said clauses in the deal governing re-imposition of U.S. sanctions and the responsibilities of European nations once a dispute mechanism had been triggered justified Iran’s planned steps.

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European signatories to the nuclear deal have continued to back the deal, pledging to find ways to ease the impact of U.S. punitive actions and ensure Iran benefits from its continuing compliance. Those efforts have proved ineffective so far.

Representatives of the EU, the French, German and British governments and Iran were scheduled to meet Tuesday in Brussels to discuss how to implement a European mechanism designed to facilitate trade with Tehran, according to an official from the bloc. It wasn’t clear whether Iran’s planned announcement would be discussed or how it might affect European policy.

Iran could be taking a “huge risk” if it unveils a backsliding on its commitments, said Vakil. That would likely be interpreted as a breach of the agreement by those members of the Trump administration who’ve been pushing a tough line against Tehran and “waiting for this moment,” she said.

Iranian leaders are “making the calculation” that the U.S. isn’t looking for a war but they could put at risk their relations with Europe, said Vakil. “They are rolling the dice.”

--With assistance from Jonathan Stearns and Golnar Motevalli.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ladane Nasseri in Dubai at lnasseri@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Amy Teibel

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