After President Donald Trump announced that he will not certify to Congress that Iran is in compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, blasted Trump for doing so “simply based on the President’s anger that he must certify that the JCPOA is working as intended, when he so often claimed the contrary without any factual basis.”
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Writing that the agreement is not perfect, Schiff noted in a statement sent to PoliticusUSA, “However my judgment then was that the deal did one singularly important thing – it verifiably cut off Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon and extended their breakout time beyond a year, rather than a few weeks or months. I also understood that the crippling sanctions that brought Iran to the negotiating table in the first place could not be maintained indefinitely and that if the United States walked away from the agreement, the international sanctions regime may well have crumbled, leaving Iran with many of the benefits of the JCPOA without the cost of heightened inspections and limited enrichment capacity.”
“It is with that backdrop that I evaluate the President’s announcement that he will not certify to Congress that Iran is in compliance with the JCPOA,” the Democrat wrote. “The decision to decertify is not based on a material breach of the JCPOA, as the Administration acknowledges that Iran remains in compliance. It was not based on the counsel of the President’s senior national security team, as both Secretary Mattis and General Dunford have made clear their belief that in the absence of a breach, the President should provide certification to Congress. It appears it is simply based on the President’s anger that he must certify that the JCPOA is working as intended, when he so often claimed the contrary without any factual basis.”
Schiff detailed how destructive it is for the U.S. to not live up to an agreement, “Among the many destructive and dangerous aspects of this decision is sowing further doubt that the United States will live up to its international commitments. If other nations do not believe that we will abide by our agreements, how can we credibly negotiate a diplomatic settlement to the North Korean crisis?”
“The failure to certify triggers a 60 day period in which Congress can reinstate nuclear sanctions against Iran under expedited procedures. However, in the absence of a breach, Congress should not take any action which would be contrary to our commitments under the JCPOA. Instead, Congress should endeavor to do what the President failed to do – abide by the JCPOA, uphold America’s global leadership role and credibility, and develop a strategy to counter Iranian influence and malevolence in non-nuclear areas,” Schiff’s statement continued.
“The President presented a list of the Iranian regime’s misdeeds – and there are many. What he did not provide is a coherent strategy to counter them, despite proclaiming a grand new approach. It would behoove the President and Congress to consider how much more difficult countering Iranian influence would be if the nuclear deal had not verifiably cut off their path to becoming a nuclear power.â€
Trump suggested that Iran might be working with North Korea on its weapons programs, but this has not been substantiated.
Trump is pushing the world closer to a nuclear showdown by undermining the Iran nuclear deal.
“Even Trump’s own advisers say that Iran is abiding by the deal, and one could tell by Trump’s attempt to define Iran as not following the ‘spirit’ of the deal that he doesn’t have a factual leg to stand on,” Jason Easley wrote so accurately in these pages.
Republicans in general oppose the Iran deal, but this is not the way to address their ideological issues. The International Atomic Energy Agency said nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran under the deal are being implemented. European leaders have condemned Trump for his announcement, and Israel’s intelligence minister said after Trump’s speech that he saw a risk of war given threats that preceded it from Tehran, according to reporting by Dan Williams for Reuters.
All of this because Donald Trump can’t or won’t admit that the Iran Deal that he blasted throughout his campaign is actually working. It most certainly is not the deal Trump would have made, but then again, this one is actually working. Yet Trump will not concede the facts.
This is hardly Trump’s first war with reality, and it won’t be his last.
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