Europe Sucked into Iran/U.S. Tensions As Uranium Limit Exceeded By Phillip Howard
Iran recently exceeded the 300 kilogram limit of low-enriched uranium in the 2015 nuclear deal.
The remaining countries (France, Germany, China, Russia, & United Kingdom) now face the “impossible task” of salvaging what’s left of the deal as Iran grapples with “maximalist” economic pressure from the U.S.
America also just called for a special meeting of the U.N. Atomic Agency Board in response to Iran’s actions.
Photo by Bobbi Zapka/Reuters
Tensions between the United States and Iran had escalated in the face of an Iranian attack on an American drone and earlier U.S. claims that tanker ships were attacked by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping route for Iranian oil.
Trump cancelled a retaliatory strike to Iran’s drone attack just prior to launch, stating that the proportionality of life lost would have been too much.
Photo by Kevin Larmarque/Reuters
At the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan last week, Trump stated that he was willing to negotiate a new deal with Iran, but no other nation wants this, instead preferring to stick to the existing one.
Trump could ease current pressure on Iran in the same way the president has approached North Korea, another U.S. foreign policy challenge with longstanding tensions, but that is unlikely for the time being.
Phillip Howard is a graduate student at Utica College
