Top US Senator: Trump Not to Cancel Iran Nuclear Deal
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The head of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee said the incoming Donald Trump administration will not “tear up” the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
"To tear it up on the front end, in my opinion, is not going to happen. Instead, we will begin to radically enforce it," Senator Bob Corker told reporters on Friday at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Reuters reported.
He added that abrupt rejection of the deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), by the US president-elect could create "a crisis" and that he did not expect such an approach.
"To me the prudent course of action is to make sure you enforce it, that you hold the UN Security Council accountable," Corker said.
"And in the event the agreement falls apart, it's someone else that is causing it to fall apart, not a president coming in on day one and ripping up the agreement."
During his campaign, Trump had called the agreement, “the worst deal ever negotiated.”
“No. 1 priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal,” he said at the time.
In the meantime, US secretary of state John Kerry said, “(the deal) is a demonstration, quite simply, of the power of diplomacy to be able to address major international problems short of war.”
Kerry spoke Thursday with reporters in his last press conference before the Obama administration transitions to the Trump administration on January 20.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) reached the nuclear deal in July 2015 and implemented it in January this year.
While Tehran has fulfilled all of its commitments under the deal, Washington has failed to fully carry out its undertakings.
Earlier, the US Senate voted 99-0 to extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for another decade. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives nearly unanimously in November, and congressional aides said they expected Obama would sign it.
On December 15, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest said US President Barack Obama had declined to sign ISA, but had let it become law anyway.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned that implementation of the ISA will constitute a “clear and flagrant violation of the JCPOA” and draw a “very harsh reaction” from Tehran.
