Summary

Faced with US military deployments to the Persian Gulf, ‘maximum pressure’ on the diplomatic front, and the cancellation of remaining waivers for the biting US sanction regime, the Iranian government announced last month that it would respond by quadrupling its production of enriched uranium while remaining in compliance with other aspects of the nuclear deal.

According to IAEA head Yukiya Amano, the regime has followed through on its threat. On Monday, Yukiyo told a press conference that “[Iran’s] production rate is increasing,” though he declined to indicate by how much.

The escalation is just the latest in a long line of recent setbacks in US-Iranian relations.