Iran announced on Monday that it would be increasing uranium enrichment and will surpass the enrichment cap of 3.67% that was agreed upon in the nuclear deal signed with the Obama administration. Nuclear enrichment needed for weapons is 90%, a spokesman for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization said they would increase enrichment levels to 20% to use in their reactors.
Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal over a year ago and reinstated crippling sanctions on the Islamic Republic, but many European nations still look to protect the deal. The spokesman, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said the European countries can still protect the deal if they can help shield Iran from U.S. sanctions.
"We have quadrupled the rate of enrichment and even increased it more recently, so that in 10 days it will bypass the 300 kilogram limit," Kamalvandi said on state TV, "There is still time … if European countries act…the move will be reversed once other parties fulfill their commitments."
A US state department official said the move was "nuclear blackmail." A spokesman for UK prime minister Theresa May said, "Should Iran cease meeting its nuclear commitments, we would then look at all options available to us."
After two oil Tankers were attacked last week in the Gulf of Oman, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, President Trump and the US Military were all quick to blame Iran with no conclusive evidence. This announcement from Iran will surely increase tensions between the two nations, President Trump has shown no sign of easing up on sanctions.
Dave DeCamp is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn NY, focusing on US Foreign policy and wars. He is on Twitter at @decampdave.
It’s all irrelevant. The US wants a war with Iran, so a war with Iran will happen regardless of what Iran does. The only thing that could stop it would be some other geopolitical event that would derail the Iran war plan.
I would edit your post to say it’s Israel that wants a war and also its BFF MbS.
Iran is playing the only card it has left in the deck. Europe has failed to protect them from American aggression. This was the only non-violent way Iran could insure there would be consequences for those who fail to uphold international law. Any European country would do the exact same thing in their shows.
“UK prime minister Theresa May said, “Should Iran cease meeting its
nuclear commitments, we would then look at all options available to us.”
And that from a government which cannot even Brexit!
Indeed Downing Street 10 is still the outhouse of the White House.
If the other parties don’t stick to the deal, Iran would be stupid to continue compliance.
Forget passing the enrichment cap. Build those freakin nukes. It’s Iran’s only defense–something even Kim has figured out.
It would seem to me that Iran is violating nothing. The agreement was between 6 nations and Iran. The US pulled out, at that moment the agreement was dead, i.e nothing to violate. Iran adhered to the agreement anyway hoping that the other 5 parties would hold to their end of the bargain. The US threatened to sanction them as well In the end Britain and France failed to satisfy their end of the bargain. So here we are. The next actual still in force agreement that Iran is party to is the nuclear non-proliferation treaty which is a 20% enrichment threshold if I recall.
The US did not “pull out” of the agreement. The US violated the agreement. There’s a difference. The agreement is codified as a UN Security Council resolution, so the only way to “pull out of” it is to “pull out of” the UN itself. That goes for the US, and for Iran.
Ok point stands however, this is worded in the media as Iran violating something. Only rarely is it mentioned that everybody else violated it first.