On Friday, President Trump acknowledged the release of American prisoner that was held captive by Iran with the notion that Tehran should accept the nuclear agreement with the United States.
Setting new agreements
Trump also hinted that the relationship between the two countries would become advantageous if they proceeded with negotiations before the coming presidential elections, which suggests the American president is looking to use the deal as support to help him return to office.
According to The New York Times, the Iranian government was quick to reject the offer, suggesting that it has doubts that Trump will remain president. Iranian officials are currently setting up to endure American-led sanctions until after they see the results of the November elections.
Inside the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however, hints suggest that there are reports that Tehran has bolstered its supplies of low-enriched uranium by nearly 50% in the last three months. The city now has more than eight times as much nuclear power as was limited by the nuclear accord that President Trump scrapped two years ago.
During a previous televised address that President Trump held earlier this year, he said that as long as he remained the president of the United States, he would not allow Iran to wield any nuclear weapon.
The previous deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), had several countries agree to lift restrictions on Iran and allow the nation to wield nuclear supplies. The freedom, however, came with restrictions as Iran had to accept to be checked by the IAEA and to limit its caps on enriched uranium and centrifuges, as reported by ABC News.
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President Trump also took time to criticize the previous agreement calling it a "failed" deal where he noted that it caused Iran to increase its hostilities as the deal, which was signed in 2013, he added, gave them $150 billion and $1.8 billion in cash.
Baseless claims
These allegations, however, are false, as the deal was signed in 2015, two years after the time the US president claimed it was. Also, Iran was not given $150 billion, but rather, had several millions of its assets unfrozen which the US Treasury approximated to about $56 billion. The Central Bank of Iran added that it ended up amounting to around $35 billion after paying off its debts.
The report that the IAEA released was only distributed to a handful of nations. Still, its contents have been leaked to suggest that Iran has been slowly and steadily amassing its nuclear supply.
With the possibility of Iran amassing a considerable amount of fuel, the production of a weapon would still take several months or years to complete. Before the agreement. The nation had far more abundant supplies of the materials. As part of the deal, Iran transferred 97% of its fuel to the Russian government.
Officials in Iran consider their build-up of supplies as a reverse form of pressure on President Trump, as a counterattack on his sanctions.
"Our foreign policy has been very pragmatic in the past twenty years," said Gheis Ghoreishi, an Iranian foreign policy expert. He added that as of the moment, Iran is being patient and observing the situation in the US and will monitor the coming elections and see if Trump gets re-elected.
