“It has been a year since the Obama Administration reached its disastrous nuclear deal with Iran”.
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Lawmakers have been negotiating for months on how to pass new Iran legislation, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warning that he won’t let a bill come up unless it has enough support to override a presidential veto. Yemen, for instance, is a prime example where Saudi Arabia and Iran are waging a proxy war.
“We still have serious differences with Iran, but the United States, our partners, and the world are more secure because of the JCPOA”, Obama said. The Obama administration concluded, however, that uranium particles found a year ago at Iran’s secretive military base Parchin as part of an investigation tied to the nuclear deal were likely part of the country’s past covert nuclear weapons program.
Rouhani stressed that Iran will remain committed to the accord but will also be able to quickly return the nuclear program to any desired level if the agreement is violated.
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz emphasized in a separate statement that the deal is meant to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is – and will remain – a peaceful one.
The Republican-controlled House, meanwhile, approved a bill to impose new sanctions on Iran for its continuing development and testing of its ballistic missile program. Last week, the House passed two measures that would block the sale. The group of lawmakers opposed last year’s landmark global nuclear deal with Iran.
The legislation also requires federal agencies to tell Congress every two years what its 10-year plan is to respond to Iranian actions in the Middle East, North Africa and other regions.
In a threat aimed at P5+1 powers – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany – an IAEO spokesman emphasized Iran’s capability to resume nuclear activities now frozen by the JCPOA, should the West not concede to Iran’s interpretation of conditions under the JCPOA.
“If we are weak, Iran will take advantage of our weakness”, said Lieberman, chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). Meanwhile, steps that opponents call “concessions” to Iran are simply part of the deal, the administration says.
“The next (U.S.) president will need to ensure that the Iran deal remains a priority”, Davenport said. It has verifiably reversed Iran’s march toward the ability to produce a nuclear weapon, and it has prevented a new USA war in the Middle East that at times during the past decade seemed near. Presumptive Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton backs the deal; GOP rival Donald Trump has spoken of “renegotiation”. “We feel like this is an appropriate way of pushing back”. We should not relitigate this issue. The U.S. Senate hasn’t acted yet.
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Iran has complained that despite the lifting of sanctions that once barred financial institutions from doing business with the country, foreign banks remain reluctant to be involved in transactions. However, the Obama administration countered that the amendment would have restored sanctions lifted on “Implementation Day” in January, when the nuclear deal went into effect.
