Iran bombshell: Tehran one step closer to making nuclear arms as it breaches key agreement

The Middle Eastern country’s come under fire for the potential breach after diplomats cited UN inspectors’ data. The revelation comes a week after US President Donald Trump stopped air strikes on Iran. Concerns have now been raised that the prospect of Tehran violating its commitments could create diplomatic urgency to find a way out of a deepening divide between the two countries.

Officials say that Iran was set to exceed the threshold for stockpiles of enriched uranium allowed under the 2015 agreement.

The agreement was put in place with major powers and was still being followed by Tehran despite the US abandoning it last year.

Current data from UN inspectors claim Iran had not yet crossed the threshold.

However, it suggested they were on course to do so within days.

READ MORE: French military ‘has evidence’ Iran shot down US drone in airspace

One diplomat said: “They haven’t reached the limit.

“It’s more likely to be at the weekend if they do it.”

Brian Hook, the US envoy on Iran, described Tehran’s position as “nuclear blackmail”.

France, one of the European countries caught in the middle, will urge Trump to suspend sanctions on Iran.

Emmanuel Macron hopes this would allow space for negotiations between Iran and US to defuse the worrying situation.

He said at the G20 summit: “I want to convince Trump that it is in his interest to reopen a negotiation process and go back on certain sanctions to give negotiations a chance.”

On Thursday, France said it had evidence a US drone was shot down over Iranian soil but actually while it was over international waters.

Washington has since re-imposed economic sanctions on Iran, taking the unprecedented step in May of trying to drive Iran’s oil exports to zero and essentially choking off Tehran’s main source of revenue.

source: express.co.uk