Less than a week after Iran’s top military commander was killed by US drone in Bagdad the regime said Sunday(Jan.5) that it would further scale back compliance with an international nuclear pact.
Iran will not respect any limits established in the 2015 nuclear deal on the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges, according to a state-run television broadcast. Therefore, Iran would have no limit on its enrichment capacity, the level to which uranium could be enriched, or Iran’s nuclear research and development.
While the other signatories of the nuclear deal — France, Germany, the U.K., Russia and China — have tried to keep the agreement alive, the state broadcast said Tehran’s steps could be reversed if Washington lifted its sanctions.
The 2015 nuclear agreement lifted sanctions that crippled Iran’s economy and cut its oil exports roughly in half. In exchange for sanctions relief, Iran accepted limits on its nuclear program and allowed international inspectors into its facilities.
Last May, Iran stopped complying with some commitments in the 2015 nuclear deal that was agreed with global powers when Trump unilaterally withdrew from the landmark deal, brokered by the Obama administration, in 2018. Trump also re-introduced sanctions on Tehran that had been previously lifted in accordance with the nuclear deal.
At the time, Iran threatened to start enriching uranium at a higher level, unless world powers protected its economy from U.S. sanctions within 60 days.
On Thursday, the U.S. took responsibility for the death of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani. On the heels of the attack, Trump said Friday that America does not seek “regime change” in Iran but that the U.S. is “ready and prepared to take whatever action is necessary” if Iran threatens American lives, Trump added.
Soleimani “made the death of innocent people his sick passion,” Trump said from his Palm Beach, Florida, resort, Mar-a-Lago. “We caught him in the act and terminated him.”
Soleimani, who led a special Quds forces unit of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, has been a key figure in Iranian and Middle East politics. He and an aide were killed in a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport.