US May Not Leave JCPOA If Iran Declared Non-Compliant: Haley
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – If US President Donald Trump tells Congress in October that Iran is not complying with the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, that does not mean a US withdrawal from the agreement, US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley said on Tuesday.
“If the President chooses not to certify Iranian compliance, that does not mean the United States is withdrawing from the JCPOA (the nuclear deal),” Haley told the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, Reuters reported.
Under US law, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days of Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal. The next deadline is October, and Trump has said he thinks by then the United States will declare Iran to be non-compliant.
“Should he decide to decertify he has grounds to stand on,” claimed Haley, adding that she did not know what Trump would decide. “We will stay in a deal as long as it protects the security of the United States.”
In April, Trump ordered a review of whether a suspension of sanctions on Iran related to the nuclear deal, negotiated under President Barack Obama, was in the US national security interest. He has called it “the worst deal ever negotiated.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned last month that Iran could abandon the nuclear agreement “within hours” if the United States imposes any more new unilateral sanctions.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) reached the 159-page nuclear agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in July 2015 and implemented it in January 2016.
Since the historic deal was signed in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly confirmed the Islamic Republic’s compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA, but some other parties, especially the US, have failed to live up to their undertakings.
