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News > World

US Imposes New Sanctions on Iran Amid Nuclear Deal Compliance

  • Iranian Military Chief of Staff General Mohammad Baqeri.

    Iranian Military Chief of Staff General Mohammad Baqeri. | Photo: Reuters

Published 31 October 2017
Opinion

The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal.

The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard, a move that expands on the Oct. 13 sanctions leveled against the country for alleged support of "terrorism." Tehran has emphatically denied the claims.

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According to a Treasury press release, the new sanctions will affect the IRGC's Aerospace Force Self Sufficiency Jihad Organization, Air Force, Al-Ghadir Missile Command, and the Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization.

Mohammad Baqeri, Iran's armed forces chief of staff, has warned that if the United States imposes sanctions on his country, Iran will “definitely” withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal.

He noted that the driving force that helped seal the deal was the removal of Western sanctions if Iran complies with the terms laid out by negotiators, which the International Atomic Energy Agency has recently confirmed it is doing.

"The IAEA can state that such nuclear-related commitments are being implemented," said Yukiya Amano, the IAEA director-general, according to Haaretz. "I requested that Iran ... fully implement the nuclear-related commitments. This is the main thrust of the meeting in Iran ... Regarding the activities by our inspectors, they are discharging their responsibility without a problem," he added.

However, Iran's compliance with the deal has been challenged by the U.S. government, which refused to re-certify the deal. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump, without providing a shred of evidence, commented that the Iranians had committed “multiple violations” in respect to the terms outlined in the deal. He went on to say that U.S. officials have no way of confirming if Iran was complying with the deal.

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Iran's President Rouhani Slams Trump's Decertifying Nuke Deal Claims as 'Delusional'

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif responded to Trump's decision to decertify Iran's compliance with its nuclear deal by accusing him of infractions on three articles of the 2015 deal.

He cited clauses that refer to the need for all parties to carry out the accord “in good faith” and that the U.S. government “refrain from re-introducing or re-imposing” sanctions on Iran, according to Radio Teilifis Eireann.

“We live in a region where hundreds of billions of dollars of lethal American weapons have poured in, turning it into a gunpowder storage house ... so we have the right to have defensive means," Zarif said in response to U.S. accusations that Iran's ballistic missile defense system is a contravention of the nuclear deal.

The JCPOA was signed in 2015 by all five permanent U.N. Security Council members: the United States, China, France, the U.K., Russia, and Iran.

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