The Iran Hawks Are Circling

Lashing out against the Trump administration’s tightening sanctions, Iran is accelerating its steps out of the nuclear deal, breaching another of its limits yesterday and vowing that more will come. In the U.S., congressional hawks are circling, feeling vindicated by Iran’s provocations, and are trying to seize the opportunity to kill the Obama-era nuclear deal once and for all.

Last week, the Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Marco Rubio sent a letter to President Donald Trump, urging him to increase U.S. pressure even more on Iran. This was after Iran announced it had gone over a limit on its uranium stockpile. A week later, Iran went further, announcing yesterday that it was enriching uranium to a higher purity than what’s allowed under the nuclear deal.

That step puts it nowhere near enriching to weapons-grade level, but it came with a warning that the