New reports from Middle East show Iran ramping up uranium enrichment

The overall mood of the Middle East is tense, but that’s nothing too terribly new.

The region has been beset with religious violence for centuries, if not longer, and modern warfare has not been kind to these conflicts.

In fact, the United States has bene involved heavily with the region since the 1950’s, albeit fairly stealthily until the Persian Gulf War of the 1990’s, and the Iraqi liberation just a few decades later.

Now it seems to be Iran’s turn to act up, as they continue to rattle their sabers in the direction of Donald Trump and the American people.  Trump has stated that he’s not interested in a war with the Persian nation, but also warned that any military contact between the two would likely end Iran altogether.

As this cauldron continues to boil, a new report from the region has been released detailing Iran’s unwillingness to abide by international rules on the enrichment of uranium – a key component to the creation of nuclear energy and weapons.

Iran quadrupled its uranium-enrichment production capacity amid tensions with the U.S. over Tehran’s atomic program, nuclear officials said Monday, just after President Donald Trump and Iran’s foreign minister traded threats and taunts on Twitter.

Iranian officials made a point to stress that the uranium would be enriched only to the 3.67% limit set under the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, making it usable for a power plant but far below what’s needed for an atomic weapon.

But that doesn’t mean that its okay.

But by increasing production, Iran soon will go beyond the stockpile limitations set by the accord. Tehran has set a July 7 deadline for Europe to come up with new terms for the deal, or it will enrich closer to weapons-grade levels in a Middle East already on edge. The Trump administration has deployed bombers and an aircraft carrier to the region over still-unspecified threats from Iran.

The maneuver comes as no surprise to many international observers, who believed that Iran was already running afoul of these globally-agreed-upon parameters.