US Congress leaves Iran nuclear deal decision to Trump

US Congress leaves Iran nuclear deal decision to Trump
The nuclear 'hot potato' is going back to Trump.
By bne IntelliNews December 12, 2017

The US Congress has passed the ball back to Donald Trump when it comes to deciding whether heavy energy sanctions, which would most likely wreck the nuclear deal, should be imposed against Iran.

In mid-October, the American president refused to recertify Iranian compliance with the accord, triggering a 60-day window for Congress to come to a decision on whether to reintroduce sanctions most particularly aimed at crippling Iran's oil export industry, which is essential to the Islamic Republic's economic well-being. On December 12, news agencies reported congressional aides as saying lawmakers would let the deadline for the decision pass without action.

That leaves the pact between Iran, the US and five other major powers in one piece at least temporarily and means that Trump himself must decide by mid-January if to continue issuing a waiver on the energy sanctions. All the other signatories to the deal, including Russia, China and European allies, have urged Trump to continue with the nuclear deal, arguing that Iran—which was granted the agreement in return for allowing an inspection regime that should prevent it making an effort to move towards constructing a nuclear weapon—is in full compliance with it. The compliance has been certified eight times by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Trump, who has called the Iran pact the “worst deal ever” and an “embarrassment” to the US, claims Iran is at the very least breaching the “spirit” of the deal and has threatened to pull Washington out of it. However, Reuters reported a senior administration official as saying on December 12 that the White House plans on leaving the sanctions issue to Congress for the moment and is not asking for sanctions to be re-imposed.

Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters he and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin met National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster last week to see “if there’s language that fits the bill here within Congress but also... keeps them (the Europeans) at the table with us and not feeling like we’ve gone off in a different direction,” the news service also reported.

Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate foreign relations panel, has stated that he is not willing to support changes to the nuclear pact that are not backed by Europe.

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