President Trump’s Administration announced that the US would not certify Iran as in compliance with key benchmarks of Obama’ Iran Nuclear Deal. This move, while not a killing blow to the Deal, derails the deal so much, that both critics and allies alike are declaring the Deal (in its present formulation) functionally dead.
Trump also announced that a new round of sanctions would be formulated against Iran, to punish them for their ongoing support of worldwide terrorist activities.
the landmark nuclear agreement, but would stop short of fully withdrawing the U.S. from the deal. The officials also on Thursday that Tehran is about to be hit with a very firm and harsh new set of sanctions that would target its support for terrorism. Trump’s refusal to certify Iran’s compliance with key benchmarks of the Iran Deal sets the stage for either a renegotiation of the Iran Deal on Trump’s terms, or a scrapping of the plan altogether.
Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, in a brief with the White House National Security Advisor and known Islamic sympathizer H.R. McMaster, announced the President’s decision to decertify ahead of a Friday afternoon press conference in which Trump would announce a new strategy against Iran, and the future of Obama’s Iran Deal.
The Trump administration claims that it is now urging an alternate course, one that keeps the United States a party to the nuclear agreement while providing a similar yet parallel set of new laws that would force Iran to provide much greater access to its own contested nuclear sites.
“We will stay in the JCPOA but the president is going to decertify under” the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA), the key piece of legislation that requires the White House to certify Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal every 90 days.
Tillerson announced, “The president has come to the conclusion he cannot certify under INARA” that Iran is living up to all of its commitments under the deal..
Congress could write anew the provisions regarding the ballistic missiles and all other activities that would force Iran to provide a greater transparency or risk a snapback of all major sanctions, including those which were lifted as part of their original nuclear agreement.
These would include “trigger points that are specific to the nuclear program itself, but also deals with things like their ballistic missile program,” according to Tillerson, who further explained that this course of action would completely address the JCPOA’s major flaws and would put pressure on Congress to address the issue directly.
Tillerson also advocated new restrictions that would erase provisions of the nuclear agreement known as sunset clauses. These are parts of the original agreement that permit Iran to resume key nuclear weapons work within the next several years and also give it the ability to legally buy and transfer arms.
“We’re never going to accept them resuming their nuclear weapons program,” Tillerson said.
When questioned further on the rationale for not certifying the Iranian compliance with the agreement, Tillerson said that the administration does not dispute that Iran is in “technical compliance” with the JCPOA.
“One of the weaknesses,” he said, “is the bar, the standard to remain in technical compliance has not been that difficult for them to meet.”
