On January 12, President Trump waived sanctions on Iran for a third time, as required every 120 days by law under the nuclear deal. But he only did so "in order to secure our European allies’ agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal,” he said.
On January 12, President Donald Trump extended sanctions waivers for Iran for the third time. “I am waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions, but only in order to secure our European allies’ agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal,” he said. Trump also warned that he would withdraw from the deal if he judged that an agreement is not within reach. By law, the sanctions can only be waived for a maximum of 120 days, so the administration will revisit the issue again in four months. On the same day, the U.S.
On January 12, the Trump Administration waived sanctions on Iran for another four months as part of the nuclear deal but took an increasingly hard stance on Tehran’s human rights violations and its controversial missile program. The decision follows widespread protests in Iran over economic hardships in which more than 3,000 were arrested and at least 22 were killed.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that he would prefer to withdraw from or renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal. He has called it “the worst deal ever negotiated.” In stark contrast, the other parties to the agreement — China, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the United States, and the European Union — have hailed it as a success.
On January 9, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution in support of Iranians “engaged in legitimate and peaceful protests.” It also condemned the government’s human rights abuses and urged the Trump Administration to sanction those responsible for violations. Republicans and Democrats supported the resolution in a 415-2 vote.
On January 5, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told CNN that the United States wants to amplify the voices of Iran’s protestors. “We know the regime listens to the world, and that’s why we’ve been working diligently with others in the world, including our European partners, to also amplify these voices within the country to say to the regime, you must address these concerns of these people and you should be address[ing] it by beginning a process of reform,” he told Elise Labott. The following is a transcript of the interview.
Iran has increasingly used cyber operations to monitor and retaliate against foreign and domestic enemies, according to two new reports. "Iran has demonstrated how militarily weaker countries can use offensive cyber operations to contend with more advanced adversaries,” concludes a study by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. It has conducted cyber-attacks against targets in Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
On January 4, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned five Iran-based entities for ties to the country's ballistic missile program. The United States said the organizations were owned or controlled by an industrial firm responsible for developing and producing Iran's solid-propellant ballistic missiles. The sanctions freeze any U.S. property the entities hold and prohibit Americans from engaging with them.
On January 3, Iran charged the United States with "grotesque" interference in its internal affairs in a letter to the United Nations. The accusations came after the United States openly supported anti-government demonstrations in major cities, including Tehran, Masshad, Qom, and Hamadan. "Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government.
Since the 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran has signed deals worth tens of billions of dollars—on oil, aviation, solar energy, health care, and consumer goods—with companies on four continents, including North America and Europe. Foreign companies have coveted the Iranian market since sanctions were lifted in January 2016. But they faced increasing uncertainty after the Trump administration reversed policy on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2017. He announced that Iran had violated the “spirit” of the accord—and refused to certify Tehran’s compliance to Congress.
