Iran temporarily detained nuclear inspector: report

Iran temporarily held up an inspector working for the U.N. nuclear watchdog, seizing her travel documents in the process, diplomats familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday.

It appears to be the first incident of its kind since Tehran signed the 2015 landmark nuclear agreement with the U.S. and several other world powers, according to Reuters.

{mosads}Tensions have been rising between the Middle Eastern country and the U.S., with President Trump recently withdrawing from the deal and Iran subsequently breaching nuclear protocols outlined in the deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is overseeing the implementation of the deal, will reportedly discuss what happened on Thursday in its 35-nation Board of Governors meeting.

Two diplomats who talked to the news outlet said that the incident occurred at Natanz, one of Iran’s uranium enrichment sites.

Under the nuclear agreement, anywhere from 130 to 150 IAEA officials are allowed to be designated to Iran.

In another breach of the deal, Iran announced Wednesday that it would begin enriching uranium with centrifuges at the country’s Fordow nuclear site, which is built into the side of a mountain.

Tehran has already surpassed the limits set for “the purity to which it enriches uranium, its stock of enriched uranium and its ban on using advanced centrifuges for enrichment rather than research,” Reuters reported. 

This said, Iran says that all of these infractions can be reversed easily, if the U.S. agrees to lift newly placed sanctions and honor the initial deal.

The Trump administration, however, is willing to play hard ball, as the White House believes that the sanctions will cripple Iran’s economy to the point that it is willing to negotiate a new deal that would include the country’s ballistic missile program as well as its state-funded terrorist activity.