With Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stating he will increase uranium enrichment “to whatever level he wants,” the July 15, 2015 Joint Comprehenisve Plan of Action [JCPOA] is essentially null-and-void. After Trump cancelled form President Barack Obama’s Iranian Nuke Deal May 8, 2018, Iran has threatened to ramp up its nuclear enrichment program. Obama’s JCPOA, negotiated by former Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif over two years, no longer offers the safeguards needed to prevent Iran to developing an A-bomb. Already over the 300 kg limit and enriching uranium to over 3.67%, Iran has breached the JCPOA, demanding a deal to sell oil to Europe to skirt U.S. sanctions. “Iran has long been secretly ‘enriching’ in total violation of the terrible 150 billion dollar deal made by John Kerry and the Obama administration,” Trump tweeted.
Holding an emergency meeting of the U.N.’s Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] board today, Trump pointed out that Iran was never really in compliance. IAEA officials insisted that Iran was, until now, in compliance with the agreement, limiting Iran’s uranium enrichment for 10 years. Obama’s JCPOA never demanded that the IAEA had access to Iran’s secret military enrichment sites, making the agreement a farce. “Remember that deal was to expire in a short number of years. Sanctions will soon be increased substantially!” Trump tweeted. Meeting in the IAEA board meeting today, the White House tried to pressure Iran back into compliance with the flawed JCPOA. Trump cancelled U.S. involvement in the JCPOA when Iran refused to stop it proxy war in Yemen against Saudi Arabia. Iran has supplied Yemen’s Houthi rebels with missiles, arms and cash.
White House officials accuse Iran of planting Limpet mines on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, also letting Houthis fire Iranian-made guided missiles at Saudi oil pumping stations. When British Royal Marines interdicted July 4 a false-flagged Iranian oil tanker in the Strait of Gibraltar headed for Syria, Iran threatened to seize a British oil tanker. Britain seized the tanker to enforce European Union sanctions on Iran’s illicit oil sales. Going to the IAEA, Trump hopes to further isolate Iran, hitting the Persian nation with more punitive economic sanctions. Trump’s previous sanctions have already wreaked havoc on Iran’s Rial currency, now trading for one-fourth of its previous value. Iran has stubbornly refused to go back to the bargaining table to re-negotiate the Iranian Nuke Deal. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed dissatisfaction with the JCPOA.
Iran’s Supreme Leader never wanted to compromise on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, denying that it was ever for a nuclear weapon. Yet every time Iran gets hit with sanctions or doesn’t get what it wants, it threatens to ramp up uranium enrichment activities. Western intelligence officials believe that Iran had stockpiled enough weapons grade uranium before the JCPOA to build at least 10 nuclear bombs. Whatever Iran has been up to in its secret military sites is anyone’s guess. Trump flat out accused Iran of breaching uranium restrictions at its secret military sites. IAEA officials have no way to verify what goes on at any site outside its purview. When the IAEA claimed May 31 that Iran was in compliance, it didn’t include Iran’s secret military sites, where, as Trump says, could be enriching uranium. Iran can’t explain why it needs weapons-grade uranium.
When you take the tanker bombings into account and Yemen’s attacks on Saudi oil pumping stations, there’s no excuse for Iran’s malign activities. If Iran were not in a proxy war against Saudi Arabia, Trump wouldn’t have cancelled U.S. involvement in the JCPOA. Trump said Iran used its cash from the JCPOA’s sanction relief to fight a proxy war against Saudi Arabia, supply rockets-and-missiles to Hamas terrorists in Gaza and to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Iran’s refusal to talk to with the White House prompted Trump to implement more punitive economic sanctions. Trump and his Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin know where every Iranian economic bone is buried. Already plunging, the Rial currency and driving Iran’s economy into recession, Zarif said June 3 that the U.S. was at “economic war” with Iran. Iran’s aggressive actions in the Gulf mirror that fact.
Trump’s plan to slap Iran with more economic sanctions ups the ante when it comes to Iran’s provocative behavior. When it comes to Iran’s aggressive actions, one more misstep by Iran at the U.S. or its allies would result in Trump taking military action. When Iran shot down a U.S. Global Hawk surveillance drone June 20, Trump nearly pulled the trigger but decided to give diplomacy a chance. Iran knows it’;s treading on thin ice, continuing to threaten to hit the U.S. or its allies with ballistic missiles. Iran has threatened almost daily to hit U.S. targets, including the Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, with ballistic missiles. Iran boasted yesterday that if it could hit a drone at several thousand feet, it could easily take out a U.S. Aircraft Carrier. One more act of aggression by Iran on any U.S. or allied target would be met with military force, regardless of the collateral damage.
