Donald Trump's efforts to escalate tensions with Iran are succeeding in getting Iran to retaliate. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported Monday that Iran has breached a limit on how much nuclear fuel it can possess that had been set by the 2015 international agreement on its nuclear program. This doesn't give Iran enough low-enriched uranium to produce a nuclear weapon, but it signals Iran's intention to push back against Trump.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, confirmed the reports with two semi-official news outlets, and the IAEA has determined that Iran has passed the threshold of about 660 pounds of low-enriched uranium set in the agreement. It's unclear whether this move by Iran is intended to further escalate tensions with Trump, to expand the rift between U.S. and European leaders, or both. Officials from Britain, France, and Germany have been trying to keep the deal alive, negotiating with Iranian officials last week to find a way to compensate for the effects of American sanctions through a barter system.
The agreement allows Europeans to reimpose sanctions if Iran violates its terms, and Iran seems intent on pushing those countries to either break with the U.S. and blame Trump for blowing up the agreement, or retaliate within the bounds of the agreement and punish Iran. Iranian officials say that Trump broke the agreement first by reimposing sanctions, and that they are within their rights to suspend their commitments under it.