Making good on threats to ramp up uranium enrichment by July 7, Iran exceeded the limit of enriched uranium, going over its 300-kilogram limit. While denying that its was ever working on a nuclear bomb, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani warned the P5-1, excluding the U.S. [Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China], that it would start increasing uranium production July 7, unless Britain, France and Germany guaranteed oil sales against strict U.S. sanctions. “As I was informed, Iran has crossed the 300-kilogram cap according to plan,” said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, quoted by the Iranian Students News Agency [ISNA]. Breaching the July 15, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] raises the states for European powers, asking Iran to stay within the JCPOA limits for enriched uranium. So far, European nations have not given Iran the reassurance needed to halt uranium enrichment.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi told Europeans to “take more concrete steps, Iran’s action is cutting back on its commitments can be rolled back,” according to the ISNA. With Iran breaching the JCPOA, European powers are not willing to let Iran violate the agreement without consequences. It’s noteworthy that when Iran doesn’t get its way, it threatens to ramp up uranium enrichment to just below weapons grade material. Iran’s continue threat to use uranium enrichment as the basis for extracting concessions from foreign powers proves, beyond any doubt, that Iran has nuclear bomb-making on its agenda. When former President Barack Obama cut the deal in 2015 with Iran, it was all about delaying Iran’s capacity of building a nuclear bomb. Iran’s uranium stockpile could be reduced if Western powers guarantee oil sales against U.S. sanctions.
Allowing its uranium stockpile to exceed 300-kilograms gives Iran more leverage with European countries. Iran has demanded a new trade mechanism known as Instex that allows Iran to sell oil into European markets without breaching U.S. sanctions. SanamVakil, senior research fellow at London-based Chatham House Middle East and North Africa said the recent breach “isn’t in itself dangerous because it can be reversed.” Seven other European countries agreed to back Instex to allow Iran to sell oil without breaching U.S. sanctions. European countries are so worried about Iran’s uranium enrichment activities that they’re willing to jump through any hoops, including Instex to elude U.S. sanctions. European countries weren’t happy when 73-year-old President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA May 8, 2018. Trump felt he needed more leverage to stop Iran’s proxy war against Saudi Arabia.
Britain, France and Germany have all committed to keeping the JCPOA intact after the U.S. withdrawal. Showing that Europe and the U.S. different priorities, European powers have closed ranks to back Tehran. What the U.S. fears is that Iran will up its low-grade uranium enrichment activities to just under 20%, the level generally seen as weapons grade. Today’s 3.67% enrichment standards require about 1,050 kilograms [2,316 pounds] of low-grade enriched uranium to build one A-bomb. Trump wants to negotiate a new deal with Iran, something Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khemenei refuses to do. “It was a mistake under the Iran nuclear deal to allow Iran to enrich uranium at any level,” said the White House. European nations don’t accept that Iran’s been out-of-compliance with the JCPOA because inspectors were forbidden from going into military sites.
European nations seem less concerned about Iran’s nuclear enrichment activities, or, for that matter, recent attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Dependent on oil from Russia and Mideast countries, the European Union has bought cheap Iranian oil for years. Tehran has done everything possible to divide the EU from the U.S., finding any mechanism possible to circumvent Trump’s punitive economic sanctions. But like backing the Saudi proxy war to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the EU shows it’s on the wrong side of the Iran issue. Rather than quench its thirst for oil, the EU should look at Iran’s malign activities in the Mideast and North Africa. To stop Iran’s proxy war against Saudi Arabia, the EU should let Tehran know they stand with the U.S. There’s plenty of Saudi and Gulf State oil on the market to quench the EU’s thirst.
Trump’s maximum pressure campaign has resulted in Iran lashing out in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Threatening to ramp up uranium enrichment is no way to win over Europeans, now more concerned about Iran’s latest stockpile breach of 300- kilograms. Russia blamed the U.S. for Iran’s new uranium enrichment activities due to Trump’s May 8, 2018 pullout from the JCPOA. “Unprecedented and thinkable” U.S. efforts to strangle Iran’s economy, said Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, reported in Russia’s state news service Novosti. Whether admitted to or not by Britain, France Germany, Russia and China, Iran continues its Yemen proxy war against Saudi Arabia, supplying arms-and-cash to Gaza-based Hamas and Beirut-based Hezbollah terrorists. Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” hopes to avert war, getting Iran back to the bargaining table.
