Iran Threatens to Restart Nuke Enrichment Program in Matter of Days, by Adam Kredo.

Iranian leaders are threatening to restart the country’s contested nuclear enrichment program in just a matter of days as the Trump administration and European allies scramble to address a range of flaws in the landmark nuclear ahead of a May deadline that could see the United States walk away from the accord, according to regional reports and administration insiders.

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization disclosed on Sunday that the Islamic Republic has maintained the ability to restart the full-scale enrichment of uranium — the key component in a nuclear weapon that was supposed to be removed from Iran as part of the nuclear agreement — in just four days. …

The disclosure has roiled Trump administration insiders and nuclear experts who have been warning for months that Iran never fully disclosed the nature of its nuclear weapons work and progress as international leaders struggle to fix the deal by May. …

Iran’s “threats confirm that the Iranian regime never gave up on its atomic weapon ambitions,” said Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think-tank.

The nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, “merely hit the pause button temporarily on those aspects of Iran’s nuclear program that it had already perfected — and, as [Salehi’s] threats underscore, could be easily restarted—while leaving Tehran with the time and space to develop technologies that it hadn’t perfected such as advanced centrifuges and missiles,” Dubowitz said. “His threats reveal what many deal skeptics have long argued: unless the JCPOA is fixed, Iran has pathways to dozens of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of striking U.S. forces, U.S. allies, and eventually the U.S. homeland.” …

“This is exactly what President Trump means when he says the Iran deal is the worst agreement ever negotiated,” said one Republican foreign policy adviser who is close to the White House.

“The Obama administration gave away the store, literally sending Iran billions and billions of dollars, but the deal left Iran with the ability to reverse their concessions in a couple of days,” the source said. “We gave away too much for too little, and every day the deal stays in place Iran gets more and more benefits from sanctions relief. No wonder the president is leaning toward getting us out.”

I’m wearing my surprised face.