“As if the JCPOA ever made sense?”
You are correct, it didn’t. As pointed out, almost 20 years ago, by former Reagan nuclear advisor Dr. Gordon Prather, the US has abused the NPT treaty and the IAEA. Iran was doing nothing that it wasn’t entitled to do under the NPT, and the IAEA knew it. The JCPOA was put in place to eliminate Iran as a competitor for producing radio-pharmaceuticals. Canada, the largest producer, decided to stop producing, leaving a shortage and the market primarily to the US and Israel. Enrichment to 30% is necessary to produce technetium for radio pharmaceuticals. Iran’s new reactor would have flooded the market with a cheaper therefore the US needed to use JCPOA to prevent that from happening.