Trump keeps Iran deal, refuses to certify compliance to Congress

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/10/trump-keeps-iran-deal-refuses-to-certify-compliance-to-congress; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

  The Trump who said that this was a disastrous deal that should be 
dismantled was more correct than this McMastered Trump. Get the full, 
horrifying details of exactly how bad this deal is, and of Iran’s global
 jihad adventurism, in my book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran.

“Trump Keeps Iran Deal, Refuses to Certify Compliance to Congress,” by Ian Mason, Breitbart, October 13, 2017 (thanks to Ken):

President Donald Trump will not re-certify to Congress
Iranian compliance with the landmark nuclear deal signed in 2015 under
President Barack Obama, but will keep the agreement itself in place.
Congress will be urged to pass new “trigger points” to hold the
Iranians to account and the Treasury Department will be directed to
place additional sanctions on the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC), a wing of the Iranian military accused of terrorist acts
in support of the Iranian regime throughout the region.
“The President has come to the conclusion that he cannot certify …
that the sanctions relief we provided [Iran] is proportionate to the
benefit we are seeing,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on a
Thursday evening press conference call where he and National Security
Advisor H.R. McMaster laid out the broad strokes of what a White House
fact sheet referred to as “President Donald J. Trump‘s New Strategy on Iran.”
The plan, according to McMaster, was the product of “months of an inter-agency process.”
The administration will not certify to Congress Iran’s compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),
better known as the Iran nuclear deal, or that the sanctions relief
given under the deal is providing proportionate benefits to the United
States.
It is required to do so every 90 days under a law called the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA),
passed nearly unanimously by Congress in the furor that surrounded
President Obama reaching the agreement with the Iranians largely without
consulting the Republican-controlled Senate. Although there has been no
showing that the Iranian government has violated the terms of the JCPOA, Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Hailey said last month that the president “has grounds to stand on” in refusing to certify compliance should he choose to do so.
Reporting Wednesday indicated
the administration has suffered serious internal tension over whether
to certify under INARA since July, when the pro-certification elements
of President Trump’s national security team won out before
the last certification deadline. Last week, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, the
former White House advisor and Breitbart News national security editor,
who was present at those negotiations, told Breitbart News,
“I can tell you one thing: I was in the Oval the day it was recertified
last. It was the president behind the Resolute Desk. It was Steve
[Bannon] and myself on the side of the president. It was H.R. McMaster,
Rex Tillerson, [Steven] Mnuchin who were saying we have to recertify.”
Gorka believed it was unlikely the president would approve of another
round of IRANA certification, a prediction borne out in Tillerson’s
pronouncements. On Wednesday, Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney told Breitbart News Daily that he considered decertification without withdrawal, the strategem on which the administration has now settled, to “be a bait-and-switch.”
Tillerson called the JCPOA, against which Trump ran extensively during his campaign for the presidency, was “only one piece of what concerns us in our relationship with Iran.”…

______________________________________________________

 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

This is absolutely justified. Said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin:
“The IRGC has played a central role to Iran becoming the world’s
foremost state sponsor of terror. We urge the private sector to
recognize that the IRGC permeates much of the Iranian economy, and those
who transact with IRGC-controlled companies do so at great risk.”

The announcement of this move said the group provides “support to a
number of terrorist groups, including Hizballah and Hamas, as well as to
the Taliban.”
Indeed. Find out just how bad the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
really is, and what it is doing in Iran and around the world, in my book
The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran.

“Trump designates Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group, calls for more sanctions,” by Joel Gehrke, Washington Examiner, October 13, 2017:

…”I am authorizing the Treasury Department to further
sanction the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for its support
for terrorism and to apply sanctions to its officials, agents, and
affiliates,” Trump said in a White House speech.
“I urge our allies to join us in taking strong actions to curb Iran’s
continued dangerous and destabilizing behavior,” Trump added.
“The IRGC has played a central role to Iran becoming the world’s
foremost state sponsor of terror,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
said Friday. “We urge the private sector to recognize that the IRGC
permeates much of the Iranian economy, and those who transact with
IRGC-controlled companies do so at great risk.”
As Trump spoke from the White House, the Treasury Department
announced it was designating the IRGC as a terrorist entity under a
White House Executive Order. That announcement said the group provides
“support to a number of terrorist groups, including Hizballah and Hamas,
as well as to the Taliban.”

______________________________________________________

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

The report to which I linked earlier focuses on Trump keeping the Iranian deal that he repeatedly denounced. However, this one says: “Trump promised to fully cancel the deal if Congress and U.S. allies did not allay his concerns about the agreement.”
Congress and U.S. allies will not allay his concerns about the agreement. So we can only hope this deal is on its way out.
Get the full details of exactly how bad the Iran deal is, and of how
Iran aids al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas and more, in my book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran.

“Trump on Iran Decision: ‘Radical Regime’ has Spread ‘Death, Destruction and Chaos’ Around Globe,” by David Rutz, Washington Free Beacon, October 13, 2017:

President Donald Trump on Friday laid out Iran’s long
history of terror sponsorship and destabilizing behavior in a speech
announcing he would not certify the nuclear deal, calling the country a
“radical regime” that has spread “death” around the world.
“Iran is under the control of a fanatical
regime that seized power in 1979 and forced a proud people to submit to
its extremist rule,” Trump said. “This radical regime has raided the
wealth of one of the world’s oldest and most vibrant nations, and spread
death, destruction and chaos all around the globe.”
Trump delved into various illicit acts by Iran and its sponsorship of
past terrorist acts that killed American soldiers and civilians.
“The Iranian dictatorship’s aggression continues to this day,” he
said. “The regime remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism
and provides assistance to al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas and
other terrorist networks. It develops, deploys and proliferates missiles
that threaten troops and their allies. It harasses american [sic] ships
and threatens freedom of navigation in the Arabian Gulf and in the Red
Sea. It imprisons Americans on false charges. It launches cyber attacks
against our critical infrastructure, financial system and military.”
“The United States is far from the only target of the Iranian
dictatorship’s long campaign of bloodshed. The regime violently
suppresses its own citizens. It shot unarmed student protesters in the
street during the Green Revolution. This regime has fueled sectarian
violence in Iraq and vicious civil wars in Yemen and Syria.”
As expected, Trump announced that his administration would not
re-certify the nuclear deal and punted the issue to Congress. Congress
must now decide whether to reimpose a large set of nuclear sanctions
that were lifted as part of the agreement.
“Based on what I put forward, I am announcing that we cannot, and will not make this certification,” Trump said.
Trump promised to fully cancel the deal if Congress and U.S. allies did not allay his concerns about the agreement….

______________________________________________________

  “While these statements, if true, would constitute a legitimate reason
to “decertify” the deal, some of Trump’s statement had little, if
anything, to do with whether the Iranians were abiding by the agreement
of 2015. For example, Trump said, “In Syria, the Iranian regime has
supported the atrocities of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and condoned
Assad’s use of chemical weapons against helpless civilians, including
many, many children.”
If true, this would be despicable, but would not justify
decertification of the Iran deal. And there is actually strong evidence
that it is not true; yet President Trump ordered the bombing of Syria in
retaliation — all without congressional authorization, as required by
the U.S. Constitution.
Perhaps the best argument against the Iran deal itself was that the Senate shirked its constitutional duty.
 As a practical matter, Trump’s reasons for decertification of a deal
with Iran should have absolutely nothing to do with what Assad did or
did not do in Syria, or how the Iranian regime treats its own people. We
can certainly sympathize with the Iranians living under that hellish
government, but citing such considerations in a nuclear weapons deal is
yet another example of the “policeman of the world” attitude that has
infected presidents for decades — an attitude that Trump rightly
condemned during the 2016 presidential campaign.”
____________________________________________________

EXCERPTS:

 "The statements of Trump and Haley do not contradict one another. This 
is, however, a truly monstrous deal. Find the details of just how bad it
 is in my book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran. If Trump can’t get the most 

egregious elements of the deal altered, he should stick to his guns and scrap it.

 Trump, Haley said, will be working “very closely with Congress to try and come 

up with something that is more proportionate.”"

______________________________________________________

 Iran preparing to abandon nuke deal, claims 

U.S. has violated it 18 times

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/10/iran-preparing-to-abandon-

nuke-deal-claims-u-s-has-violated-it-18-times