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| Trump signs waivers extending Iran nuclear deal, but for ‘last’ time |
| 2018-01-13 |
| [IsraelTimes] White House official says it is only to give Congress time to strengthen the deal so that it never expires US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... signed a waiver on Friday keeping the Iran nuclear deal alive, at least for now. But a White House official told news hounds that "this is the last such waiver he will issue," unless Congress heeds his call from October to unilaterally strengthen the deal. Faced with a deadline over whether to reimpose sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the 2015 nuclear accord, Trump ultimately decided to keep those sanctions suspended for at least another 120 days. If he had not signed those waivers, those sanctions would automatically be reinstated, putting the US in contravention of the deal’s terms and likely spelling the end of the 2015 pact. The official said that Trump now wants to work with America’s European allies ‐ who all urged him to remain within the accord ‐ to develop a new agreement to replace the Iran deal. Tehran would not be involved in these discussions, as it was prior to the signing of the 2015 accord, but would be subject to US and European sanctions if it breaks the terms of the new arrangement. The new deal, the official said, would be permanent and would not begin to expire after a decade as was the case in the 2015 accord. It would target Iran’s missile program and not simply its nuclear industry, and it would mandate UN inspections of Iranian sites. "If the president can get that agreement that meets his objective and it never expires, it denies Iran all paths to nuclear weapons forever, not for ten years, he would be open to remaining in such a modified deal," the official said. Under the accord, the US president has to sign the waivers every 120 days, while the American intelligence services monitor the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s compliance with the deal, which rolled back crippling sanctions against Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. In conjunction with his announcement to extend the agreement, Trump used the occasion to slap 14 Iranian individuals and entities, including the Head of Iran’s Judiciary, Sadegh Amoli Larijani, with fresh sanctions. The last time he faced a major deadline regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the deal is formally known, he decertified the deal under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA), a congressionally mandated measure that requires the president to determine if Iran is in compliance. The administration charged that Iran was not living up to the "spirit" of the agreement and asked Congress to unilaterally impose "trigger points" on the deal that will reimpose nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran should it overstep certain bounds. Those trigger points, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told news hounds at the time, would be aimed primarily at addressing what the administration sees as flaws in the deal, such as the sunset clause, which is set to lift limitations on Iran’s nuclear program when the accord expires in over a decade, and Iran’s ability to continue developing its ballistic missile program. The move forced Congress to set another review period to determine whether to hit Iran with sanctions that were in place before the accord was implemented, or potentially take other actions. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |