President Barack Obama is working to further enmesh the U.S. with the Iranian nuclear deal before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The administration is reportedly working to deepen U.S.-Iranian business ties and lift any sanctions that discourage business between the two countries. Throughout the 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged to renegotiate the Iran deal, even threatening to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence vowed that the deal will be “ripped up” upon consultation with U.S. allies. Department of State Spokesman Mark Toner, confirmed to reporters “the agreement is valid only as long as all parties uphold it.”
“Our bet is when they look at this and analyze what the implications would be for tearing up the deal, they won’t do it,” a senior U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal. Another official elaborated that the best policy the administration could pursue is to “show that it’s working.”
The Iran nuclear deal is also signed by Russia, Britain, France, China, and Germany. The U.S. along with several other European countries have begun to re-engage economically with Iran.
Business enmeshment includes the multi-million dollar deal between U.S.-based aircraft company Boeing and Iran Air. Europe-based company Airbus also confirmed it had signed a multi-year and multi-million dollar deal to provide planes to Iran. These commercial deals are only possible under sanctions relief, which came as part of the Iran nuclear deal. If the U.S. withdraws from the agreement, it would effectively cancel both Boeing and Airbus’s deal and possibly renew U.S. sanctioning of Iranian banks.
“Iran’s understanding in the nuclear deal was that the accord was not concluded with one country or government but was approved by a resolution of the UN Security Council and there is no possibility that it can be changed by a single government,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reportedly told his cabinet. “The United States no longer has the capacity to create Iranophobia and to create a consensus against Iran,” he continued in a bid to encourage Trump not to follow through with his promise.
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