MESOPOTAMIA NEWS SAMPLER BY RELEVANT VOICES & SOURCES

TOP OF THE AGENDA – Iran May Boost Uranium Enrichment, Leader Warns

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that Tehran would not tolerate both sanctions and nuclear restrictions (Fars) and warned that the country could begin to boost uranium enrichment capacity if European partners do not stand up to reinstated U.S. sanctions.

The head of Iran’s nuclear energy body said the country notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it will open a new center for centrifuge production (AFP) as soon as tomorrow, a move he said would not violate the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, also known as the JCPOA. European leaders have pledged to support Iranian oil sales and investment in the country (Reuters) despite expected U.S. sanctions on Iran following its recent withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

ANALYSIS

“Albeit drastically reduced, economic benefits can be generated at least to a level that would allow Iran to conclude that it is worth staying in the deal. Tehran should assist the Europeans in laying out the threshold of what it will take to stay in,” Adnan Tabatabai writes for the Progressive Post.

“Iran is not the sturdy, stable government that its enablers like to depict. It is a regime that has forfeited its legitimacy, is drowning in corruption, and rests its power on security organs that it fears will prove unreliable in a crunch,” CFR’s Ray Takeyh and Mark Dubowitz write for Foreign Policy.

“Khamenei reiterated his 2014 stated goal of achieving 190 SWU (separate working units of uranium enrichment). But important point here is that he emphasized this would take place within the Iran deal context,” tweets Georgetown University’s Ariane Tabatabai.