State Dept: Trump to Decide on Iran Nuclear Deal, Sanctions on Friday

Discussions Are 'Ongoing' on Decision

President Trump is widely expected to again refuse to certify Iran’s compliance with the P5+1 nuclear deal, despite the international community repeatedly affirming Iran’s compliance. What happens after that, however, is still uncertain.

There’s been some speculation that President Trump is angry Congress didn’t do anything to kill the Iran nuclear deal, and might eliminate his waiver on nuclear sanctions, effectively reimposing all the US sanctions they were required to lift under the deal and putting the US in direct violation.

The State Department says the discussion is “ongoing” on the sanctions, and that they expect the announcement will be made later this week, likely on Friday. They offered no hint where the administration was leaning, however.

Iran has warned US violation of the deal could lead them to pull out as well, though this is not necessarily believed to be likely to happen, as Iran and the other P5+1 have been talking for months about continuing the deal without US participation.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.