Announcing plans to enrich uranium to 20% [weapons grade], Iran thumbed its nose at U.N.’s Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA], gutting the July 15, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA]. Canceling U.S. involvement in the JCPOA May 8, 2018, 74-year-old President Donald Trump put Iran on notice that they cannot continue their proxy wars with Yemen’s Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia and Israel, feeding arms-and-cash to Hamas terrorists in Gaza and Hezbollah terrorists in Beirut, Lebanon. Now that Trump’s on his way out, Iran has gotten bolder, seeking to avenge to the Jan. 3, 2020 death in Baghadad of al-Quds chief Qassem Soleimani. Pentagon officials picked up chatter that Iran has been mobilizing for a possible strike against the U.S. or its allies. Trump warned Iran Dec. 27 any attack would be met with a forceful response.
IAEA informed its inspectors that Iran planned to ramp up 20% uranium enrichment at its underground Fordo nuclear facility, off limits to IAEA inspectors. After the 2015 JCPOA, IAEA officials were not allowed in any sensitive military enrichment sites, making it impossible for inspectors to assess Iran’s compliance with the Nuke Deal. Iran’s announcement about going up to 20% enrichment at Fordo throws a monkey wrench into plans to salvage the JCPOA, at least for now. Announcing plans to increase production to 20%, Iran sends a message to 78-year-old President-elect Joe Biden and his 58-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken to rejoin the JCPOA soon after they take office. Biden has hinted that he’ll rejoin former President Barack Obama’s JCPOA, if, for no other reason, to carry on his legacy, something Trump spend four years dismantling.
Rejoining the JCPOA would do nothing for Middle East peace unless Biden can get Iran to stop in proxy wars against Saudi Arabia and Israel. Iran wants to use its threat to make weapons grade uranium to get Biden back to rejoin the JCPOA. “Iran has informed the agency that in order to comply with a legal act recently passed by the country’s parliament, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran intends to produce low-enriched urainium . . . up to 20 percent at the Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant,” said the IAEA in a statement. IAEA didn’t say when Iran planned to start boosting enrichment at its Fordo plant, saying that inspectors have had access in the past to Fordo. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to the IAEA, said Iran threatened to increase uranium enrichment after the Wall Street Journal broke the story, proving that Iran has been playing global chess.
U.S. national security officials suspected Fordo from 2008 of secret uranium enrichment activities. Ringed with anti-aircraft batteries, Fordo’s a heavily fortified facility attesting to its importance in Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Fordo reportedly has some 3,000 high-speed centrifuges, capable of spinning uranium into urainiun-242 hexofluoride gas, a precursor to weapons grade uranium. Iran has always denied its nuclear ambitions, denying that its program is for anything other than peaceful purposes. Announcing plans to spin uranium to 20% is designed to get the attention of the incoming Biden administration to make a deal to rejoin the JCPOA. Iran has put the incoming Biden White House into a guessing game, not knowing what to do to reign in Iran’s threat to make weapons grade fuel. Trump had the Pentagon draw up bombing plans of Iran’s secret nuclear sites.
Iran can’t have it both ways, ask to improve global relations while going rogue when it comes to what’s left of the JCPOA. Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to limit uranium enrichment to 3.67%, something they’ve deviated from no enriching at 4.5%, violating the agreement. Jumping to 20% tears the JCPOA up, especially for signers like Great Britain, France and Germany, all opposed to Iran violating the terms to the JCPOA. Russia and China cut Iran much more slack when it comes to its uranium enrichment activities. Trump was clear that it was a red line for the U.S. for Iran to enrich weapons-grade uranium, something that could lead to a bomb. Based on former President Barack Obama’s JCPOA, it’s clear that he was not prepared to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon. If Biden rejoins the JCPOA, it would give Iran the green light to continue building a nuclear device.
Approaching the anniversary of Soleimani’s assassination, the Pentagon is on red alert for a possible Iranian retaliatory strike. Trump warned Iran “to think it over” before acting against the U.S. on the one-year anniversary of Soleimani’s death. Rejoining the JCPOA without reassurances that Iran would stop its proxy wars against Saudi Arabia and Israel would give Iran a clear path to a bomb. Obaoma’s Iranian Nuke Deal had no provision for verification at Iran’s secret military sites where it’s clear Iran continues unabated its uranium enrichment Iran still hasn’t retaliated for the Nov. 27, 2020 assassination of its chief nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, something attributed to a joint mission between the U.S. and Israel. .When eight missiles struck the U.S. embassy in Baghdad Dec. 27, the U.S. suspected Iran. Rejoining the JCPOA, the U.S. would need more from Iran than just talk.
