The Iranian regime has once again resorted to nuclear brinkmanship, formally suspending all cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This move, ratified on June 25, 2025, is being portrayed by Tehran as a show of strength.

However, a closer look reveals it to be a transparent and panicked bluff, a desperate act orchestrated by the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to mask profound internal weakness and an existential fear of impending international sanctions.

The regime’s latest escalation is a direct response to the growing threat of the snapback sanctions, which would automatically reimpose all prior UN sanctions suspended by the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers. This is a possibility the clerical regime, already crippled by internal crises, cannot afford. The regime’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, betrayed this fear when he warned that European activation of the snapback would be “Europe’s biggest historic mistake,” making the nuclear issue “far more complicated and difficult.”

European leaders are well aware of their leverage. The........

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