Will retaliate against new sanctions imposed by US: Iran

Will retaliate against new sanctions imposed by US: Iran

Will retaliate against new sanctions imposed by US: Iran

A leading Israeli expert on the Iranian nuclear sanctions, Dr. Gerald Steinberg from the Political Science department of Bar Ilan University, told World Israel News (WIN), "In the last round Trump already changed the rules of the game because he refused to certify that Iran is following the (nuclear) agreement".

Many of those sanctions - including one targeted at Larijani - were in response to the Iranian government's crackdown on peaceful protests that have swept the country in recent weeks.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based United Nations agency that conducts nuclear inspections in Iran, has repeatedly verified that Iran is in compliance with the accord, which required Tehran to dismantle its main nuclear reactor, drastically cut back on uranium enrichment, get rid of thousands of centrifuges and export most of its heavy water.

The president will announce the plan to waive the sanctions for another 120 days on Friday morning, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. But the European diplomats appear to have allies in Trump's own camp. "Operating under an ultimatum leads to nothing", Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselbourn told Welt am Sonntag in Germany. No doubt this view is reinforced by the IAEA's determinations that Iran has been maintaining the agreed-upon restrictions, although many critics of the deal have responded to such claims by highlighting nuclear inspectors' lack of access to Iranian military sites.

Trump's decision, which wasn't set until late in the day Thursday, follows the advice of his entire national security team, including National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Ultimately Mr Trump would like an agreement that ranges well beyond the narrow question of nuclear arms so that it covers a wide array of provocative Iranian conduct in the Middle East. Europeans and other world powers believe that it was only the narrowness of the original deal that secured Iranian co-operation in 2015. After working with the House, the Senate bill was rolled into the law signed by President Trump in August 2017, Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which included actions against North Korea and Russian Federation as well as Iran. The nuclear accord doesn't directly bar missile testing.

"Trump's policy (and) today's announcement amount to desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement", Zarif tweeted shortly after Trump's statement. Trump is also waiving other US penalties covered by the agreement, including on Iran's oil and gas sectors, which were up for renewal next week.

The Thursday meeting in Brussels is part of diplomacy on both sides of the Atlantic before deadlines related to the deal falling this month, including deciding whether to reimpose oil sanctions lifted under the deal.

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What are the new sanctions? "We have sanctioned almost 100 individuals and entities involved with the Iranian regime's ballistic missile program and its other illicit activities". The last time the agreement came up for review, in October, aides had to talk him out of abandoning it completely.

Mr Trump was the one that needed to check his compliance, he said.

Trump has also continued to rail against the nuclear accord, calling it the "worst deal ever".

Trump stopped short of declaring a U.S. withdrawal from the deal, however, and instead punted the issue to Congress, initiating a 60-day review period during which American lawmakers could decide whether to re-impose sanctions.

Still, Trump left some room to maneuver in his statement.

Trump, who has vowed to scrap the pact, was expected to give the US Congress and European allies a deadline for improving it, the person said. Whether that must come in binding action isn't clear.

European governments have strongly supported the Iranian nuclear deal and insisted they will abide by it whatever the Trump administration decides.

The allies initially held back from condemning Trump's ultimatum.

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