State Dept Vows to Keep Sanctioning Iran for Non-Nuclear Reasons
In a new statement ahead of her planned visit to Vienna later this week, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley condemned Iran, accusing them of “holding the world hostage” with the P5+1 nuclear deal, which both they and the United States are party to.
Many in the Trump Administration are openly hostile toward the nuclear deal, and Haley suggested Iran was using the existence of the deal as a pretext for “support for terrorism, disregard for human rights, and violations of UN Security Council resolutions.”
These allegations are built largely not on anything Iran’s done, but on consistent US efforts to undermine the pact with new sanctions to replace those they were required by the deal to lift, with Haley suggesting Iran thinks it’s immune to getting those sanctions back so long as they comply with the nuclear deal.
The State Department appeared to echo this narrative themselves, vowing to keep sanctnioning Iran for “non-nuclear” reasons whenever the opportunity presents itself. Of late, these sanctions have largely been on the basis that Iran is supporting Syria’s government against ISIS, a fact US officials have loudly condemned, and that Iran has tested missiles to retaliate against an oft-threatened US invasion.