Iran Suspends Cooperation with the IAEA

This could be the first step towards Iran’s withdrawal from the NPT.

Stupid attacks have consequences:

Iran’s president on Wednesday ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency after American and Israeli airstrikes hit its most-important nuclear facilities, likely further limiting inspectors’ ability to track Tehran’s program that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels.

The Iranian government’s decision is unfortunate, but it was practically guaranteed to happen after the U.S. and Israel attacked their facilities. Military action always has unforeseeable negative consequences, but Iran’s move to halt cooperation with the IAEA has to be one of the most easily foreseen consequences of bombing Iran. The Iranian government was cooperating and its nuclear program remained peaceful, and its reward for adhering to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was to be repeatedly bombed by the forces of two nuclear-armed states.

This could be the first step towards Iran’s withdrawal from the NPT. That outcome is still avoidable, but it will be much harder to keep Iran as a party to the treaty after the bombings.