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Comment by trhway | Hacker News Reader

even if Iran was honestly complying, it seems that 60% level left them enough wiggle room for "accidental enrichment" Ooopps :

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/20/iran-denies-enrichi...

" Iran has denied that it has intentionally enriched uranium to a purity of 84 percent ...

US-based financial news agency Bloomberg reported on Sunday that inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had found uranium enriched to a purity of 84 percent — just below the 90 percent required for a bomb — and are trying to determine if it was produced intentionally."

Peaceful energy requires well under 10%. Enriching any noticeable amount (i.e. >> research/medical quantities) beyond that level has only one purpose - weapons (and you can make a weapon even with slightly sub-90%, and 84% does sound there, it is just a bit more technically complex and yield may be less, yet who measures ...)

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The JCPOA limit was 3.67%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Comprehensive_Plan_of_Ac...

So, if 3.67% was enough for them (like for anybody else doing peaceful nuclear energy), why they have produced so much of 60%?

Edit: judging by the answers the word "why" happened to be misunderstood in my question. I'll restate it - what purpose Iran has been enriching uranium to 60% for?

So far the only plausible answer has been - weapons.

So, Iran:

  - claimed intention of destruction of Israel and US, 
  - started the actual, not by proxy, war with Israel by missile attack on October 2024, 
  - and made all the practical steps toward obtaining nuclear weapons (and does have ballistic missiles to carry them)

I.e. Iran presented credible existential threat to Israel and US, and thus is getting bombed in response.

because the US pulled out of the deal and reinstated the sanctions which were the whole reason Iran joined the JCPOA in the first place.

This is like asking why your employee stopped showing up for work after you fired them.

No, it's like asking why you spent a billion dollars renovating your house, then claimed you were never planning to live in it.

Knock knock. It's the world police.

Iran complied with the <4% limit throughout the entire period that the United States remained party to the JCPOA.

The US (specifically Trump at the behest of Netanyahu) broke the agreement, no one else.

this is a misunderstanding of the full context. The US abandoned the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 under Trump's order to withdraw from the agreement (which was, IMO, strictly part of his package to ruin the legacy of Obama, who he despises deeply). This essentially killed the primary reason Iran agreed in the first place, which was relief from sanctions. However the agreement remains in force to this day and is still monitored by the IAEA. So it's not very surprising that Iran resumed their enrichment activities [1] and Trump's actions in 2018 has led to vastly higher tensions between the US/Iran/Israel.

It is well established by the IAEA itself that Iran fully honored the terms of the JCPOA up until Trump intentionally ruined the agreement by pulling the US out of it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_withdrawal_from_...

That's quite something to read again with the perspective of hindsight. It's highly ironic that the European Commission called the US sanctions on Iran's ballistic missile program illegal (and took actions against them); those same ballistic missiles are being used against Europe today, in Ukraine.

That was in 2018; the EU ended up themselves sanctioning Iran for ballistic missiles in 2024,

> "In a statement dated 13 September 2024, the EU strongly condemned the recent transfer of Iranian-made ballistic missiles to Russia, considered as a direct threat to European security [sic!] and as a substantive material escalation from the provision of Iranian UAVs and ammunition, which Russia had used in its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. The High Representative stated that the EU would respond swiftly and in coordination with international partners, including with new and significant restrictive measures against Iran."

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024...

> "The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on Iran’s deputy defense minister, senior members of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and three airlines over allegations that they supplied drones, missiles and other equipment to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine."

https://apnews.com/article/eu-russia-drones-missiles-iran-sa...

It's not that ironic to have the view that a country is entitled to weapons to defend itself, while still complaining later on when they sell them to your enemies. It's just too principled to make sense to Americans.

Yes, it looks pretty certain to me that Trumps 1st term policy changes are the root cause of this war:

https://theconversation.com/trumps-first-term-lies-at-the-he...

It's entirely in keeping with nature the man that he now claims to be the worlds peace maker.

Didnt want to say it in my comment above but I agree and I generally think even Oct 7 hamas attack might not have happened if iran were less isolated

but netanyahu wanted oct 7 to happen pretty badly as it's kept him out of jail for a couple of years now

Yes, Hamas played right into Netanyahu's hands, gifting him the rational he needed to deal crippling blow to Hamas itself, and inflict untold misery on the Palestinians who elected them. Possibly they did it with Iran's encouragement but in the end, sowing the seeds of Gaza's destruction was their choice to make.

While Trump took the first step down that lead to this path of destruction, but we would not have gotten to where we are now without the enthusiastic help of a cast of cretinous politicians just like him. A pox on all their houses.

Yes, that happened 5 years after Trump unilaterally destroyed the Iran nuclear weapons ban deal.

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