Iran Breaks With More Limits in Nuclear Deal as It Pushes for European Aid – The New York Times

In fact, American officials are not confident at all. Since Mr. Trump left the agreement in May 2018, not a single other participant has joined him in renouncing it or reimposing sanctions. Rather, the Europeans have sought workarounds that would keep Iran within the terms of the deal, and they have argued that Mr. Trump erred gravely by scrapping the agreement rather than building on it. Russia and China appear to be looking for ways to help Iran sell oil as well.

In Saturday’s announcement, the Iranians omitted a key detail: how much they will push the level of uranium enrichment. They are still enriching now at purities of around 4.5 percent, modestly above the limit required under the 2015 accord but useful only for fueling nuclear power plants. There had been speculation that Iran would crank that up to 20 percent, a level that would be useful in a research reactor in Tehran, supplied by the United States decades ago, that produced medical isotopes.

Iranian officials have skirted that question, but Mr. Kamalvandi said the country had the right to go beyond 20 percent. “Right now there is no need for that,’’ he said, according to Iranian news reports.

The other lingering question is whether this pressure from Iran is intended to lead to a meeting between Mr. Trump and Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, who are both scheduled to be in New York later this month for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly.

Mr. Rouhani has never met an American president, though he spoke with President Barack Obama by phone, and Mr. Trump has said he would be open to a discussion without preconditions. But several administration officials said in recent days they believed the political risk for Mr. Rouhani would be too high, especially after the United States’ recent efforts to escalate sanctions, including against Mr. Zarif, the foreign minister, who would presumably be at the center of any negotiations.