It has to be tried. At this point the only direction is more escalation, not less. As I said, it's the easiest option and doesn't really cost us anything. Making a breakout right now will not remove the sanctions. Might as well try and get the Europeans on-board, and steadily escalate if they don't. A breakout would probably be better in a Democrat presidency anyway, not when Bolton is in this erratic administration.
Well every Democrat candidate so far has said they would return to the JCPOA.
As you saw today, a response has been made and further escalation has been laid out.
No, you come on. I don't give a damn about Rouhani. He can't even run in the next election. No-one could have foreseen Trump. I am not falling into the American trap of blaming ourselves for America's doing.
You are mistaking the relatively pragmatic Obama administration with the unhinged and maximalist Trump administration. If we went to 20,000 centrifuges tomorrow, the sanctions would still be in place. Nothing we do with this administration will get them to come to the table. There is no negotiating with this administration.
So we bide our time and take action on our own terms, in our own time. It's not my decision, but my observation is that Iran is trying to get the parties to stick to the JCPOA. And you know Rouhani will have had Khamenei's approval to do that. The tipping point is the 2020 US election. That is when the JCPOA's fate will finally be decided. If it's a Democrat who wants to return to the JCPOA unconditionally, pas hichi. If they want to weasel more concessions out of Iran, we'll be back to a 2007-13 situation. If it's Trump again, Iran will go above and beyond 2013 and could damn well leave the NPT. The JCPOA will be dead and buried.
Don't come back to me saying we need to take action, action, action. There has to be a reason for doing it NOW, or in six months, or next year. Because so far there is a clear plan, and the time for decisive action is set at 2021.