United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley will travel to Vienna and consult with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, a U.S official announced on Wednesday.
Under the Corker-Cardin legislation, the president must certify Iran’s compliance with the deal every 90 days. The bill requires the president to reveal whether the lifting of sanctions on Iran is in “national security interests” of the U.S., if Iran is complying with the deal and all related agreements, whether Iran is making nuclear advances, and whether Iran is in material breach of the agreement.
The next report on Iran’s compliance is due in October and President Donald Trump has indicated that he intends to find Iran in non-compliance with the deal, Reuters reported.
While the IAEA has not declared Iran to be in material breach of the agreement, it has documented a number of Iranian violations of the deal since it was implemented in January 2016.
“Ambassador Haley has consistently voiced her and the administration’s concerns about Iran’s illegal missile testing and other harmful actions,” a U.S. official told Reuters.
Since the implementation of the nuclear deal and lifting of nuclear-related sanctions, Iran has continued to develop and test ballistic missiles, defying the terms of UN Security Council resolution 2231, which “calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”
France, the United Kingdom, and Germany—all partners in the nuclear deal—joined the U.S. in sending a letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres calling Iran’s missile launches “threatening and provocative,” and charging that the launches defied resolution 2231.
The U.S. recently imposed new sanctions on six companies for supporting Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Iran has also shipped arms to Yemen in violation of the terms of 2231, which bars Iran from transferring arms to other nations for eight years after the implementation of the deal.
[Photo: US Mission to United Nations / Flickr ]