Obama to Veto Anti-JCPOA Bills: White House
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – White House Spokesman Josh Earnest said the administration of outgoing president Barack Obama will not sign any bill that would undermine the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA) between Tehran and world powers.
"We certainly are not going to, however, sign a piece of legislation that would undermine the ability of the international community to continue to successfully implement the international agreement to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," Earnest said in a daily briefing on Tuesday as cited by Sputniknews.
"Any actions that are taken, if there are any, are the kinds of actions that have been in the pipeline for quite some time and are entirely consistent with the United States upholding our end of an agreement that has prevented Iran from developing their nuclear weapon capability," he added.
The remarks came after US House of Representatives recently passed a bill to renew sanctions on Iran for 10 years.
Last week, the House of Representatives voted 419 to one for a 10-year reauthorization of the Iran Sanctions Act, or ISA, a law initially adopted in 1996 on the baseless allegation that Tehran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its peaceful nuclear energy program, Reuters reported.
The Iran measure will expire at the end of 2016 if it is not renewed. It must still be passed by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama in order to become law.
This is while the Obama administration has advised the Republican-dominated Senate not to impose more sanctions on Iran after the historic nuclear agreement.
The vote took place one week after Republican Donald Trump was elected US president. Congressional Republicans unanimously opposed the nuclear deal, along with about two dozen Democrats, and Trump has also strongly criticized it.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany), reached the comprehensive nuclear deal in July 2015 and implemented it in January 2016.
