Trump has Extended Iran Nuclear Deal Again
He said, though, this is his last waiver.
Politico has reported that President Donald Trump has decided to extend the Iran nuclear deal. He stated, though, this will be his last waiver “unless the deal is strengthened by Congress and European allies.” Politico continued:
Trump faced a Friday deadline to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Iran the U.S suspended as part of a 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated with Tehran by the Obama administration and five other nations.
Trump is designating 14 Iranian individuals and entities with new sanctions unrelated to the nuclear deal, including the head of Iran’s judiciary, the official said. But he also expects Congress and European nations, with whom the White House has been negotiating new provisions cracking down on Tehran, to take action before he faces another deadline for extending the deal, officials said.
Trump came to this decision after he met with his national security team on Thursday.
This means that Congress and others have until May to change it when it comes up for renewal once more.
Senior admin official says Trump intends to work with European partners on "some kind of follow-on agreement" that would, from the WH perspective, improve the nuclear deal. Iran has said it will "never" renegotiate the deal.
— William Gallo (@GalloVOA) January 12, 2018
In order for Trump to accept a new Iran agreement, it would have to 1) have no sunset clause, 2) address Iran's ballistic missiles, and 3) and limit Iran's nuclear breakout period to one year or less, senior WH official says.
— William Gallo (@GalloVOA) January 12, 2018
The Treasury Department passed sanctions on 14 people. From Fox News:
Trying to strike a balance, the Treasury Department’s separate sanctions were designated for 14 individuals and entities in connection with human rights abuses and censorship in Iran, and support to designated Iranian weapons proliferators.
“The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues to engage in human rights abuses and injustice. We are targeting the Iranian regime, including the head of Iran’s judiciary, for its appalling mistreatment of its citizens, including those imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and for censoring its own people as they stand up in protest against their government,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement Friday.
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Comments
I thought Drumpkopf was supposed to be tough on Iran.
In his defense, it was Ivanka’s and Jared’s decision to do so, not his.
I’m not sure how this can be justified, given the recent oppression.
It’s not justification, it’s that he (and we) have no other realistic choice – that’s how bad the deal was. We gave Iran every benefit they wanted at the front end of the deal – there’s nothing more they have to get out of it. Meanwhile, they were only supposed to do things bit by bit, over time. So, pulling out now just gives them an easy excuse to completely disavow everything, which would not actually hurt them at all.
The one thing we COULD do is reinstate sanctions… BUT… they won’t do any good since all of Europe (and Russia too) are overjoyed to sell Iran anything it wants, and to buy Iran’s oil in return. And it looks like they have told the US that we’re on our own from here on it, they’re back to being full time partners with Iran.
So, we’re stuck. It’s a horrible deal, it’s terrible for us to stay in it, and it’s even worse for us to back out. There is no good choice, no beneficial course of action available to us at all anymore. Not on this issue.
this will be his last waiver “unless the deal is strengthened by Congress and European allies.”
President Trump can’t toss this to Congress at the moment. If he does, the D’rats will put something in the emergency spending bill to sabotage any effort to undo Obama’s foreign affairs “legacy”.
Don’t allow yourself to become compartmentalized and lose sight of the big [picture.
At the moment, Trump is juggling ISIS, NK, China, Russia, Canada, Mexico and the EU. He really does not need to deal with Iran at the moment. Also, he is trying to get Congress to concentrate on immigration reform, the budget and healthcare reform. He really does not want them to get side tracked with the Iran deal. If he decertifies the Iran deal, then Congress will have to deal with it and he does not want that at this particular time. These are the most obvious reasons why Trump is likely to have extended the Iran deal until May.
Other reasons may have been to put additional pressure on Republican congressmen going into the October midterms and the possible exit of senior Government officials by April.
I would not assume that the SS Trump is sinking just yet.