Global Geopolitical Series: Iran to break parts of nuclear accord to protest U.S. sanctions

The campaign of ‘maximum pressure’ waged on Iran by the United States is finally leading to cracks on Iran’s commitment and willingness to abide by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Acton (JCPoA), better known as the Iran nuclear Agreement.

The Accord was agreed upon by Iran and six world powers (United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, and Russia) back in 2015 where Iran agreed to curb its nuclear ambition by halting production of nuclear bomb grade Uranium in exchange for sanctions relief.

President Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement and imposed harshest of sanctions on the oil and gas-rich Iran last November, and since then it has intensified the sanctions pressure and has been pursuing European allies to follow suit.

In response to the U.S. sanctions, Iran has officially informed the remaining partners of the agreement that Iran would breach parts of the agreement in response to the U.S. sanctions and the remaining partners’ lack of actions to counter those sanctions.

Under the nuclear deal, Tehran was allowed to produce low-enriched uranium with a 300-kg limit, and produce heavy water with a stock capped around 130 tons. Tehran could ship the excess amounts out of the country for storage or sale. The deal also caps the level of purity to which Iran can enrich uranium at 3.67 percent, far below the 90 percent required for weapons grade. It is also well below the 20 percent level to which Iran enriched uranium before the deal. It has announced that from now on it would abide by no such limit and also threatened to return to enriching Uranium to high grade if the remaining partners failed to counter U.S. sanctions in the next 60 days.