Arizona Senator Mark Kelly on Monday linked the current nuclear crisis in the Middle East directly to the 2018 collapse of the Iran nuclear deal. Speaking on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” the Democratic senator and former astronaut argued that while Iran’s enrichment levels haven’t quite hit the final 90% “weapons-grade” mark, the safeguards that once held them back were effectively torched years ago.
Kelly’s critique focused on the first Trump administration’s decision to walk away from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a deal brokered under President Obama.
“In 2018, when Donald Trump was in the White House, he tore up the Iran nuclear deal,” Kelly said. He noted that at the time, Iran was operating within strict limits that prevented the development of a bomb.
He suggested the move was driven more by a desire to erase a predecessor’s legacy than by a strategic necessity, a choice he believes sparked the current cycle of escalation.
The technical reality on the ground has become increasingly grim since that withdrawal. Under the original 2015 pact, Iran was barred from enriching uranium beyond 3.67%—a level strictly for power plants.
By 2023, however, reports confirmed Iran had leaped to 60% purity, and international inspectors later flagged particles as high as 84%. In the context of 2026, following the devastating military strikes on Iranian facilities in June 2025, intelligence suggests Tehran is still working to rebuild its infrastructure in the rubble of Natanz and Fordow.
The fallout from the 2018 exit remains a point of heavy debate. Supporters of the withdrawal originally argued the JCPOA was a “temporary fix” due to its sunset provisions, which would have lifted restrictions on Iran after 10 to 15 years.
They also criticized the deal for ignoring Iran’s ballistic missile program. Kelly, however, maintains that abandoning the deal removed the world’s “eyes and ears” on the ground, leading to the current situation where Iran can theoretically reach “breakout capacity” in a matter of days.
Despite the 2025 air campaign aimed at degrading Iran’s enrichment centers, U.S. officials recently noted that “weaponized uranium enrichment capabilities” remain a persistent threat. Iran continues to resist binding caps on its program, even as new negotiations in Geneva and Oman have struggled to find a breakthrough this year.
For Kelly, the path forward is clear but difficult: “I believe that we‘ve got to make sure that they do not get a nuclear weapon,” he told Cooper, though he warned that the diplomatic damage from 2018 continues to haunt current efforts to stabilize the region.
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