'Sad
Day for Warmongers': UN Finds Iran in Total
Compliance with Nuke Deal
Critics slam Trump for attempts to undermine
Iran agreement
By Julia Conley
September
02, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- On what one observer called "a sad day for
warmongers," the United Nations declared Friday
that Iran is fully adhering to the nuclear deal
reached in 2015, and that inspectors will not go
looking for infractions at the request of the
Trump administration.
Trump and the U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations, Nikki Haley, have regarded Iran and the
agreement with suspicion, with Trump threatening
to withhold certification of Iranian compliance,
and
saying in an
interview in July, "If it was up to me, I would
have had them noncompliant 180 days ago."
Haley traveled to the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA)'s headquarters last week to
demand inspections of Iran's military sites—but
presented no evidence of suspicious activity by
the Iranians. IAEA officials reported that they
would not be going on a "fishing expedition" to
find Iran guilty of noncompliance. "We're not
going to visit a military site...just to send a
political signal," an IAEA official
told
Reuters, saying, "If [the Trump
administration wants] to bring down the deal,
they will. We just don't want to give them an
excuse to."
The IAEA found that Iran has honored the
commitments it made in the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA),
brokered by the
Obama administration. Iran agreed to limit its
nuclear program's capabilities while the U.S.
and five other world powers eased economic
sanctions on the country.
Iran currently has less than a third of the
amount of enriched uranium that it's permitted
to have under the JCPOA. After two slight
breaches this past spring, its
stockpile of
heavy water is under the deal's threshold as
well.
The U.S. has isolated itself from other
signatories in its search for reasons to declare
Iran to be noncompliant. Nicholas Hopton, the
British ambassador to Iran,
told the
Islamic Republic News Agency on Thursday, "I
cannot speak for the government of the United
States of America. The British government,
however, is fully committed to the JCPOA and to
its successful implementation."
Trump
critics spoke out on social media Friday about
the president's claims regarding Iran's
activities.
The National Iranian American Council also
released a statement noting that Trump himself
has
violated the
agreement, rather than Iran.
There is a reason why Trump can’t point to
any specific evidence to justify his
assertions that Iran is noncompliant with
the nuclear accord. The IAEA, U.S.
intelligence community and our allies in the
P5+1 have all affirmed Iran’s compliance.
Yet, Trump has violated the JCPOA and
continues to hold the fate of the accord in
doubt by threatening to withhold a
Congressionally-mandated certification of
Iran’s compliance in mid-October, which
would trigger expedited consideration of
snapback sanctions.
This
article was first published by
Common Dreams
-
|
No
Advertising
- No
Government
Grants
-
This
Is
Independent
Media
|
