The greatest imminent danger in last year’s nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was always that Iran would cheat-taking all the advantages of the deal but then seeking to move forward more quickly toward a nuclear weapon-and that the Obama administration would be silent in the face of that cheating.
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Mull said Iran has shipped off 98 percent – or 25,000 pounds – of its enriched uranium, and it has filled the core of its heavy-water reactor, capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, with concrete. To that end, Kerry has lobbied European banks to make greater investments in Iran and US officials even have explored softening financial restrictions on Iran.
The White House issued a threat to veto the legislation on July 10, saying it would kill the nuclear agreement, which it said remains “critical to ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is and will remain exclusively peaceful”.
“In the aftermath of the nuclear deal, the Revolutionary Guards have wanted to make it clear to the United States and their own people that the nuclear compromise wasn’t a reflection of a weakness”, said Karim Sadjadpour, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “If Iran continues to meet its obligation and we walk away, we walk away alone”.
The historic Iran deal signed a year ago has succeeded in rolling back Tehran’s nuclear programme and avoiding further conflict, US President Barack Obama said today. Instead, because of unilateral US sanctions on the Iranian economy, Tehran finds itself in the awkward position of having to rely on the United States to lobby other countries and non-American financial institutions to conduct business with it.
It’s not the only manufacturer hoping to capitalize on a country sorely in need of modern aircraft, with Iran Air also announcing a deal for 118 planes from rival Airbus.
The airline sector is one of the few USA industries that opened to Iran following the agreement, with Boeing announcing in June a $17.6-billion deal to sell 80 passenger jets to Iran Air. Mull cited Iran’s weaknesses in transparency, banking and corporate governance. That would be the biggest business transaction between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the US hostage crisis.
“Sanctions had become a very big obstacle in the path of Iran’s economy, but removing them was not by itself going to be the sole engine of economic growth”, said Said Leylaz, an analyst close to the president. It has also opened the door to cooperation outside the nuclear sphere if the US and Iran can seize the opportunity.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who proactively pushed for the nuclear deal, promised Tehran will take matters to court.
New Mandatory Ballistic Missile, Terrorism and Cyber Sanctions: Imposes mandatory sanctions on persons involved with Iran’s ballistic missile program and those that transact with them; against members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and foreign persons that are officials, agents, or affiliates of the IRGC; and for any significant activities undermining cybersecurity by Iran. This transaction allowed Iran to keep its heavy water stockpile up to the deal’s limits, as well as receive payment from the United States.
Some opponents in Congress appear to be waiting for Obama to leave office to pounce with new legislation, but others are not: a House vote on several pieces of Iran-related legislation is conspicuously scheduled for the one-year anniversary Thursday.
Since the signing of the agreement, Iran has removed over two-thirds of its centrifuges.
“It took more than three and a half decades for diplomatic negotiations between the US and Iran to become routine, and all of the diplomatic dividends of renewed ties will not come overnight or even in one year”.
Administration officials say pressures on the nuclear deal make it that much more valuable.
But the deal still faces stiff opposition in the USA and in Iran, and could yet be jettisoned – if not during Mr. Obama’s tenure, then after the key electoral processes in both countries during the coming year.
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However, the U.S. House of Representatives passed two measures last week that would block the sale.
