SIGNS POINT TO YES: Is Iran Pushing the Envelope on Its Nuclear Deal?

The comments by Rouhani and Salehi parallel those made last month by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who was quoted in Iranian media saying that Iran had “succeeded to make operational the most advanced centrifuges that were just an idea at the time of approving the [nuclear deal].”

“Zarif has, in a sense, been able to generate a fundamental lie about this whole deal, that somehow these centrifuges make economic sense for a civil program,” said Albright.

Florida senator Marco Rubio told TWS that such statements about advanced centrifuge development cement long-standing concerns about the nuclear deal.

“A bipartisan majority of Republicans and some Democrats in Congress warned President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran would enrich the radical regime and ultimately bring it closer to acquiring nuclear weapons, and that is exactly what is happening,” Rubio said.

Rubio is a co-sponsor of legislation introduced in March that slaps sanctions on Iran over its non-nuclear illicit activities. The bill has the backing of several pro-Iran deal Democrats.

The Iranians may be making progress on centrifuges beyond what’s allowed under the nuclear deal, in part through a so-called “quality assurance” loophole that Iran is exploiting to test centrifuges, Albright said.

“You have this undercurrent where Iran is either violating the deal, it’s inconsistent with the deal, or it’s just pushing the envelope,” he said.

The Obama administration was not willing to rebuff Iran’s inconsistencies with or violations of the deal, Albright added. “There needs to be a really hard push back,” he said. “I’m hoping that the Trump administration will do that, because the Obama administration just refused.”

If President Trump would just release the hidden details of Obama’s deal, we could all judge whether Iran is in compliance.