Trump to approve Iran nuclear deal for last time

Trump Thursday told reporters that he will soon take a decision whether or not to re-impose sanctions lifted under the Iran nuclear deal.

The Trump administration unveiled new sanctions on Iran on Friday, but extended a waiver on existing sanctions, effectively keeping the Iran nuclear deal in place temporarily. Instead, I have outlined two possible paths forward: “either fix the deal’s disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw”, read a statement.

“This is a last chance“, Trump said, pushing for a separate agreement.

A senior administration official said Mr Trump wants the 2015 Iran deal strengthened with a follow-on agreement before the 120 days are up, or the United States will unilaterally withdraw from the global pact.

The president said Friday he hoped to reach a supplementary agreement with the US’s European allies to “impose new multilateral sanctions if Iran develops or tests long-range missiles, thwarts inspections (of its nuclear installations) or makes progress toward a nuclear weapon”.

On Thursday morning, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, as well as European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

The president faced a Friday deadline to decide whether to reimpose tough economic sanctions on Iran’s central bank that the Obama administration dropped as part of the 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated with Tehran by the USA and five other countries.

Critics of the deal in Congress have also proposed amending legislation to ensure that U.S. sanctions would “snap back” automatically if Iran carried out certain actions.

President Trump steps up sanctions against Iran. A key, last-minute issue has been Trump’s anger with European leaders over what he saw as their muddled response to protests that broke out across Iran in recent weeks over the lack of economic opportunity there.

In a White House background call on Friday, senior administration officials confirmed that President Donald Trump will waive sanctions on Friday one last time. The meeting, to be held the next day is with regards to the Iran nuclear deal. In November, the body again said Iran was in compliance.

“Fourth, the legislation must explicitly state in United States law – for the first time – that long-range missile and nuclear weapons programs are inseparable, and that Iran’s development and testing of missiles should be subject to severe sanctions, the statement said”.

The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany threw their weight behind the pact limiting Iran’s nuclear ambitions and insisted that the Islamic Republic is respecting it.

“The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues to engage in human rights abuses and injustice”.

In a phone call on January 11, French President Emmanuel Macron stressed to Trump the importance of adhering to the deal, pointing out his country’s “determination in favor of a strict application of the agreement and the importance of its respect by all of its signatories”.

But lawmakers say there has been little movement on Capitol Hill on the issue, and the White House has been mum on whether the Iranian government has approached any of its “trigger points”. Ministers recognized the need to do more to boost the economic benefits the deal should bring to Iran.