Ben Rhodes

you know, there were certain some of the restrictions on the numbers of centrifuges that Iran could operate, that that ceiling started to go up.

Right.

And the kinds of research and development that they could do on more advanced centrifuges so that they can reach uranium quicker, those started to lift.

And now this became another source of general freak out to the FDG crowd.

I do have to say, Tim, here, because Donald Trump pulled out of this deal in 2018,

long before the end of the sunset periods.

So pulling out of the deal, they put the centrifuges back in.

They started using the advanced centrifuges.

They started to acquire a stockpile of enriched uranium.

So the geniuses in not just the Trump administration, but at the FDD and these other hawkish places got what they wanted, which is a much faster acceleration of the uranium nuclear program than would have been the case under the JCPOA.

And this is one of the reasons why I try not to think about it too much.

The point is that before this war, because Donald Trump pulled out of the JCPOA, Iran's nuclear program was more advanced than it was before the JCPOA, never mind with the JCPOA restrictions.

They had more of a stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

They were using more advanced centrifuges.

All the things that the critics of the JCPOA warned about, they were doing because Iran

Donald Trump pulled out of the JCPOA in 2018.

So we ostensibly went to war against Donald Trump's own policy of pulling out of the JCPOA, which is something that these people will never acknowledge for the rest of my lifetime, but it is the truth.

I assume that...

If in the good scenario, in the best case scenario in which Iran makes a deal and this war ends comprehensively,

They'll ship that stockpile out.