Bobby Ghosh, Columnist

Iran's Nuclear Announcement Plays Into Trump's Hands

Tehran’s threat to step up uranium enrichment is a gift to the U.S. and should get allies back on its side.

June 17, 2019 at 4:49 PM UTC

Bobby Ghosh is a senior editor in the digital weekend team. Previously, he was a columnist at Bloomberg Opinion, where he wrote mostly about international affairs and culture.

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Iran announced Monday it is 10 days away from breaching the nuclear-stockpile cap imposed by the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. For good measure, the Islamic Republic is threatening to enrich uranium beyond a 3.67% limit, meant to prevent it from making weapons-grade material, if the European signatories don’t move quickly to save the deal.

For those Europeans – Germany, France, the U.K. and the European Union – it’s a moment of truth. They remain vocally supportive of the nuclear pact, and continue to criticize the U.S. for abrogating it last year. But just last month, they rejected an Iranian ultimatum, saying they would not keep the deal alive under Tehran’s threats.