WASHINGTON, D.C. — The US administration of President Donald Trump reluctantly announced that Iran is complying with the nuclear agreement after meeting with top security advisors.
Trump administration officials said new economic sanctions against Iran were being prepared over its ballistic missile program and for contributing to regional tensions, Reuters reported on Monday.
“I think you all know that the President has made very clear that he thought this was a bad deal — a bad deal for the United States,” the White House spokesman Sean Spicer said during a press briefing earlier in the day.
As part of the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the US President must recertify Iran’s adherence of the deal to US congress every three months in exchange for the removal of many international economic sanctions.
Prior to the announcement, Trump met with senior security advisors including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, the New York Times reported.
Trump and republican congressmen have expressed their dissatisfaction with the deal and their desires to re-impose sanctions for what they allege to be Iran’s ties to “terrorist” organizations.
Reuters reported an unnamed senior administration official listing accusations about Iranian behavior in the region, including ballistic missile development and proliferation, support for terrorism and militancy, complicity in atrocities committed in Syria and threats to Gulf waterways.
"The president and the secretary of state judge that these Iranian activities severely undermine the intent of the JCPOA, which was to contribute to regional and international peace and security,” the agency quoted the official as saying.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is responsible for monitoring and verifying Iran’s compliance with the deal. It has not reported non-compliance.
Under the agreement, Iran is not permitted to enrich or purchase nuclear materials to weapons grade quality, nor may it arm its ballistic missiles with nuclear payloads.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said the United States is the one violating the spirit of the deal.
“Well, we’ve taken a route that has been prescribed within the nuclear deal…” Zarif said in an interview with the National Interest magazine in New York, “and we will discuss that in the joint commission to make sure that the shortcomings by the United States are remedied.”
The FM believes Tehran could even walk away from the agreement.
“If it comes to a major violation, or what in the terms of the nuclear deal is called significant nonperformance, then Iran has other options available, including withdrawing from the deal,” he added.
The Iran nuclear deal was reached between Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council and the European Union and Germany (P5+1) in July 2014, and came into effect in January 2016.
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