JCPOA - Page 5

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani took the unusual step of publicly applauding the European Union (E.U.) on Wednesday for taking a “big step” in setting the mechanisms to evade new U.S. trade sanctions.

Iran’s former ambassador to Germany, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, made an argument on Ohio-based talk show Going Global with David Delgado on Monday evening that regime change is truly the only option for the Islamic Republic, because the nation will not change its behavior and “behave like a normal country” to have sanctions removed, as United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Trump administration has suggested.

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised President Donald Trump’s decision to reinstate U.S. sanctions on Iran as a historic turning point and called on Europe to follow suit by stopping the talks and taking concrete action.

“Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States,” President Trump wrote on Twitter. “I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!”

Iran’s Central Bank lifted a ban on exchange offices on Monday, allowing them to bring in much-needed hard currencies ahead of the official reimposition of sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s automotive sector, gold, and other key metals by the United States.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says it is possible for sanctions on Iran that were reimposed Monday to be lifted, but noted that it will take “enormous change” by the Islamic Republic, which must “behave like a normal country.”

The United States reimposed sanctions against Iran on Monday, as presaged by President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from his predecessor Barack Obama’s nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, announced on Wednesday that a new factory capable of producing 60 nuclear centrifuge rotors per day is completed and ready to go online if the nuclear deal collapses. He also said Iran has been steadily acquiring uranium despite the “denuclearization” agreement and now has 950 tons of uranium ready to enrich.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran is ready to boost its uranium enrichment to higher levels if talks with Europe on salvaging the nuclear deal fail, a top official said Tuesday.

Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei is determined to build better diplomatic and trade ties with every country in the world – though not with the United States, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iran is treating the United States with “much more respect” since he pulled out of the nuclear deal. He expected Tehran to crumble under sanctions and negotiate a new deal soon.

The United States reportedly denied entry Monday to NATO’s former Secretary General Javier Solana — who played a key role in negotiating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — over a visit he made to Iran in 2013.

In a speech at the Heritage Foundation on May 21, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined a list of 12 conditions Iran must meet to reach a new nuclear agreement with the United States. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, one of the lead architects of the nuclear deal Tehran struck with former President Barack Obama, responded this week by lashing out at Pompeo, dismissing his demands as “insulting,” and accusing President Donald Trump of “erratic behavior.”

Iran is looking to EU nations to provide funds to help it honour the 2015 nuclear accord, President Hassan Rouhani has warned.

Iran’s nuclear chief said on Wednesday that a facility in the country’s Natanz nuclear plant, meant to build advanced centrifuges, will be completed in a month, and noted that the Islamic Republic is prepared to increase its uranium-enrichment capacity if the nuclear deal collapses.

Germany, France, and Britain joined the EU to plead for special “ally” status to exempt them from U.S. trade sanctions on Iran.

A bombshell report released Wednesday by the majority staff of the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations revealed that the Obama administration secretly plotted to give Iran access to the U.S. financial system as a sweetener for the 2015 nuclear deal. This effectively helped Iran evade sanctions that were not lifted as part of the JCPOA, as it is formally known. The report also details how Obama officials blatantly lied to Congress and the American people about this special arrangement.

Iran’s plan to boost uranium enrichment capacity did not breach its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal brokered by Washington, the European Union (EU) said.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday ordered his Atomic Energy Organization to prepare for weapons-grade uranium enrichment, bringing pressure against European powers desperate to keep the Iran nuclear deal alive after the U.S. withdrew last month.

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo describe the nuclear deal with Iran as something that allowed the rogue nation to “act with impunity.” When asked if tensions between Israel and Iran have escalated because the

Trump’s promise to cancel the Iran nuke deal was similar to promises he has made about NAFTA and trade with China: deals so bad that it is worth taking the big risks necessary to fix them.

Foreign policy experts and Republican operatives who supported President Donald Trump’s campaign — and his promise of discarding his predecessor’s nuclear deal — greeted Trump’s decision Tuesday to reimpose sanctions on Iran with a deluge of support.

Some opponents and proponents of the Iran nuclear deal who served under various administrations admitted to a House panel on Tuesday that the pact is “deeply flawed” but urged U.S. President Donald Trump to try to “fix” the problems rather than withdraw from the agreement.

England, Germany, and France issued a joint statement on Tuesday expressing “regret” over President Donald Trump’s historic decision to withdraw the United States from the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or Iran nuclear deal, brokered under former President Barack Obama.

President Donald Trump announced withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, on Tuesday afternoon. Both praise and criticism came swiftly.

In advance of President Trump’s statement about the future of the Iran nuclear deal at 2:00 PM Eastern time on Tuesday, most observers believe he will withdraw from the agreement or demand such extensive revisions that it is effectively wiped out.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) led a group of 12 Democrat leaders in the Senate in writing an open letter to President Donald Trump on Monday urging him to keep the U.S. in the Iran deal.

China on Wednesday argued that the signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, should uphold the nuclear agreement amid threats by American President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to kill the deal.

Despite misleading claims by former Obama administration officials and their supporters in the liberal media that the material provided “nothing new,” the existence of the archive itself is a bombshell.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on Monday night that the United States has known about Iran’s atomic archive “for a while,” and he discussed it with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when they met on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allegations of a secret Iranian atomic weapons program have been dismissed by EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini who says Iran is complying with its nuclear commitments.

Presidents Donald Trump of the U.S. and Emmanuel Macron of France didn’t deny continued differences on the Iran nuclear deal during a joint press conference at the White House on Tuesday, but they expressed hopes for renegotiating or adding to the Iran JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Uncertainty from Washington, DC, due to the Trump administration’s possible withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear Iran deal resulted in a drop of the Iranian rial to a record low on Monday.

Outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff submitted their resignations shortly after the announcement that Tillerson was let go from the department.

Iran claimed Monday that it could produce higher enriched uranium within a 48-hour period if the United States exits the 2015 nuclear deal, otherwise known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

A soon-to-be-released report from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) reveals that Iran has fired 23 missiles, at least 16 of them nuclear-capable missiles, since signing the controversial 2015 nuclear deal.