West Aims to Revise Nuclear Deal With Iran Ahead of Trump Inauguration

Hopes New Terms Will Eliminate Excuses for Trump to Take Action

by Jason Ditz,

While the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran has been in place for almost a year now, and the only real compliance questions center around the US not following through on all the pledged lifting of sanctions they were supposed to do, officials now say the Obama Administration and the rest of the West are pushing to add even more restrictions on Iran.

It’s not so much that there’s a technical justification for any of these new restrictions. Rather, officials say the goal is to even further limit Iran’s civilian nuclear program before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office, in hopes that it will eliminate any excuse he has to scrap the pact.

Though Trump campaigned on the idea of ripping up the Iran deal if elected, though since then his aides have said the focus will be on strict enforcement of the pact. This enforcement strategy is also being advocated by Republicans and the Israeli leadership, both of whom previously opposed the deal on any terms.

Officials say Iran has engaged in talks about these newly proposed revisions but hasn’t committed to anything. The main focus appears to be to even further limit the amount of enriched uranium they are allowed to keep, though in practice this will primarily be a problem with compliance so long as the same Western nations remain inconsistent in following through on a pledge to give them access to the international market.

http://news.antiwar.com/2016/11/24/west-aims-to-revise-nuclear-deal-with-iran-ahead-of-trump-inauguration/