Uranium enrichment is a signal from Tehran for Europe

The Iranian nuclear issue returns to the center stage, after Tehran announced it intends to proceed with raising the level of enrichment of uranium. The maximum enrichment threshold, set by the treaty, from which, as is known, the United States has withdrawn, is equal to a value of 3.67%, while Iran intends to bring the present value around 5%. The decision appears to be more symbolic than anything else, since 90% enrichment is needed to build nuclear weapons, but it is a very clear signal, both for the United States, to which it represents a response to unilateral withdrawal from the treaty, which, above all, for the European Union, guilty in the eyes of Tehran of not having committed enough with Washington to enforce the commitments made after the long negotiations. It must be remembered that the US, after having abandoned the treaty, subjected Iran to harsh economic sanctions, which have affected the economy. The sanctions, which mainly affect Iranian oil exports, have had a related effect, the prohibition for European companies to trade with Tehran, on pain of closing the American market. The current phase of relations between the US and Iran is going through a period of strong tensions, at the moment, therefore, the Iranian government cannot hope to obtain positive effects from possible negotiations with Washington, therefore it tries to carry out a stimulating action towards the Union European. At first glance this strategy appears to be a loser, because the Union is not a cohesive political subject, capable of exerting a counterbalance to American politics; this could lead one to believe that Tehran is doing wrong assessment, but Iranian politicians are too experienced to make a mistake of this magnitude; rather the intention seems to want to create the conditions to worsen the relationship between Brussels and the White House, a relationship that is increasingly loosening due to Trump's policy. The Iranians have expressly said that the decision to go beyond the threshold of enrichment set by the treaty is not irreversible, but Europe must prove itself not subordinate to the United States, helping Iran to leave the sanctions regime and keeping the promise of creating an alternative financial instrument able to circumvent the economic pressure to which Tehran is subjected. If for Iran the central issue is the economic one, for Europe, as Tehran well understood, the Iranian nuclear issue invests more areas of interest. Certainly the Iranian market could open concrete possibilities within a difficult economic situation even for the countries of the old continent, but Trump's relationship with the USA certainly does not appear secondary. From the political point of view, in fact, the deterioration of relations with Washington should impose a different approach and the occasion of the unilateral withdrawal from the treaty by the American, could represent an occasion to allow to gain a position of greater autonomy, also in virtue of the compliance with agreements made. At this moment Europe is proceeding in a random fashion, but the establishment of the newly elected in the most important places of the European institutions could lead to greater cohesion towards the assumption of greater political responsibilities. Certainly a collision with the United States is unthinkable, but a more relevant position in international politics, through a diplomatic action that allows to protect also the peculiar interests of Europe, could also determine a change of attitude of Trump. The contingent case of the Iranian nuclear could be the starting point to gain international autonomy and, from this, prestige and reliability for the Union.