Iran's announcement that it will no longer abide by the most important limits in the landmark 2015 nuclear deal could place Tehran back on the pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Iran’s announcement Sunday that it will no longer abide by the most important limits in the landmark 2015 nuclear deal could place Tehran back on the headlong pursuit of nuclear weapons, one of the widening consequences of the U.S. killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Suleimani.
Limits on stockpiles of enriched material would also be disregarded. Iran had already begun to breach some of these restrictions after Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal. Sunday’s announcement represents one more step away from the deal. Wendy Sherman, a former undersecretary of State who led part of the negotiations with Iran, said on Twitter that she was not surprised by Iran’s declaration. “If there is good news in this it is that Iran will return to deal if nuclear sanctions lifted and will not kick out” the International Atomic Energy Agency, she wrote.
Under the deal, which was brokered by President Obama with Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France, Iran agreed to dismantle its nuclear production infrastructure, mothball the centrifuges used to enrich uranium, disable its plutonium-producing heavy-water reactor and get rid of nearly its entire stockpile of enriched uranium. In exchange, Iranian assets that had been frozen overseas were released and sanctions were lifted that would allow Iran access to banking systems and oil markets.
“Meet our diplomacy with diplomacy, and not with military force,” a senior State Department official said late last week, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity in keeping with administration protocol. “The regime is not interested in that, and they’re paying the price for it. … The offramp has been there for three years. The Iranians keep rejecting it.”
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