U.S. Policy
The following is the full text of the White House press release and President Obama’s letter to Congress on renewing the national emergency with respect to Iran. CONTINUATION OF THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO IRAN On November 14, 1979, by Executive Order 12170, the President declared a…
On November 2, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) expanded its list of medical supplies approved for export or re-export to Iran. Under a general license issued in 2012, export of basic medical supplies to Iran has been permitted even while Washington tightened economic and…
U.S. officials welcomed the nuclear deal’s Adoption Day on October 18. "This is an important day for all of us and a critical first step in the process of ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program will be exclusively for peaceful purposes," said Secretary of State John Kerry. Following Adoption Day,…
On October 17, senior State Department officials answered questions about implementation of the nuclear deal with Iran. The following are excerpts from the background briefing, which was held one day before Adoption Day, the point at which the agreement came into effect. MODERATOR: The…
Iran’s government reportedly continued to imprison, harass, intimidate and discriminate against people based on religious beliefs in 2014, according to an annual report by the U.S. State Department. It also notes that non-Muslims faced “substantial societal discrimination, aided by official support…
On October 4, the Iranian parliamentary committee tasked with reviewing the nuclear deal presented its preliminary report to the Parliament. It highlighted both the strengths and weaknesses of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but emphasized the harmful effects some provisions could…
On September 26, Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the implementation of the nuclear deal with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif. The meeting in New York City on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly was their first since the agreement was announced in July. Before the meeting…
On September 17, a ranking Treasury official told lawmakers that the United States is “intensifying a battery of sanctions that will not change under the terms of that deal” even while preparing to suspend secondary nuclear sanctions in return for Iranian compliance. “These include sanctions…
State Department officials announced that Adoption Day for the Iran nuclear deal will be October 18, 2015. They also clarified that the deal will not go into full effect, notably sanctions relief, until after Iran dismantles key components of its nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy…
On September 17, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the appointment of Ambassador Stephen D. Mull as Lead Coordinator for Iran Nuclear Implementation. The following is Kerry's statement in full. I have always said that, as important as it was to negotiate the nuclear deal with Iran,…