America has accused the Iranian Regime of using the enrichment of Uranium in contraversion of the 2015 JCPoA agreement, which the US chose to walk out on. This is undoubtedly true as the regime has offered to reverse the actions if they are compensated for the economic loss they have suffered as a result of the deepening US sanctions.
This is a worrying new step in the crisis as it is not a big step to go from low enriched Uranium to weapon-grade, and thus it raises the spectre of US military intervention given that President Trump has alleged in a tweet that Iran had been “secretly ‘enriching’ uranium in total violation” of the deal made by his predecessor, Barack Obama. Of course, Mr Trump did not give any indication of his source of information and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had repeatedly verified Iran’s compliance with the deal up until this months widely notified breach.
Iran has long been secretly “enriching,” in total violation of the terrible 150 Billion Dollar deal made by John Kerry and the Obama Administration. Remember, that deal was to expire in a short number of years. Sanctions will soon be increased, substantially!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2019
The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has hit back stating that his countries actions are lawful under the accord in the event of “significant non-performance” by other parties.
Irony of IAEA Board meeting on US request:
a. US abhors JCPOA, axed & violates it, and punishes all who observe it;
b. US has no standing to raise JCPOA issues;
c. Iran fully complied with JCPOA per 15 IAEA reports;
d. Iran’s actions are lawful under para 36 of accord: pic.twitter.com/UOr316AZnx— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) July 10, 2019
However, given that the other remaining parties to the deal are doing what they can by implementing Instex, this seems like a weak argument and reinforces the US stance. It seems that Iran is ready to take this to the brink.
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