Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, image via Wikimedia Commons
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,363, December 4, 2019
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Iranian president Hassan Rouhani’s recent announcement of the renewal of uranium enrichment at the Fordow fuel enrichment plant, as well as high-level Iranian gloating about recent progress in the development and operation of uranium enrichment centrifuges, may indicate that Tehran intends to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear agreement and effect a breakout toward nuclear weapons production in 2020.