06 September, 2017
Will President Donald Trump, yet again, verify that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear agreement it made in 2015 with world powers?
Thus far, however, reporting from the USA intelligence community, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the other parties to the agreement make it clear that Iran is meeting its many commitments.
However, she asked: "Are we going to take care of our allies and make sure they're comfortable, or are we going to look after our national security interests?" Haley didn't dispute the assessments of global inspectors and US intelligence agencies, both of which concluded that Iran is in compliance with the deal, no matter how flawed and limited it may be.
The Trump administration has already certified twice that Iran is complying with the deal.
Asked if the US would end up isolated for leaving a deal that has buy in from China, Russia, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the EU, Haley said Washington's job wasn't to make sure allies were "comfortable". Failure to issue the certification would open the door for Congress, under expedited procedures, to introduce legislation to reimpose nuclear sanctions on Iran.
Her speech, delivered at the most hawkish think tank in Washington-a nesting ground for the key architects of the Iraq War and wider Global War on Terror, not to mention almost every anti-Iranian hardliner in town-came just five days after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declared for the eighth time that Iran was complying with the 2015 deal, otherwise known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. "In short, we must consider the whole picture, not simply whether Iran has exceeded the JCPOA's limit on uranium enrichment".
"Judging any worldwide agreement ends and begins with the nature of regime that signs it", Haley added.
Second, the United States is pressing the IAEA to demand inspections at sensitive sites in the hope of provoking a refusal that would justify a finding of noncompliance.
When limits on Iran's uranium enrichment or centrifuge production expire, Iran may be able to send a nuclear warhead to the USA, as North Korea can now, Haley said.
"I'm not making the case for decertifying (the agreement)", she told her rapt AEI audience.
"Bottom line is that the nuclear deal has not moderated Iran", Phillips said. The next deadline is October, and Trump has said he thinks by then the United States will declare Iran to be non-compliant.
While the North Korea and Iran nuclear programs are quite different - the North has a small arsenal of atomic weapons, and Iran does not - the decisions about how to handle them are closely related, many experts argue.
"Because the European allies understand the concerns we have with Iran, if they saw the President decertify, they would realise this is going to Congress and they would watch that debate very closely", she said.
Despite broken and empty promises made by the Obama administration that the IAEA will have access to these nuclear sites, Dubowitz noted that Rouhani and his fellow cohorts made it clear that the United States and IAEA will never gain access to these sites.
Haley said that threat shows that "Iran's leaders want to use the nuclear deal to hold the world hostage to its bad behavior".
Haley, who last month traveled to Vienna to meet with officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency, will speak Tuesday about why Iran's compliance is "not as straightforward as many people believe" and will list out the country's violations to the deal. "This is not an easy situation for anyone", she said.
He warned that, when Iran does reach this level, "it won't be the JCPOA or war".
