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US Congress seeking to abolish Iran nuclear deal: Academic

Saturday, 03 December 2016 9:03 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 03 December 2016 9:07 AM ]

US President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union Address during a Joint Session of Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

A bill for the resumption of the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA), which has been passed in the US Congress, has raised uncertainty over the future of the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group. Both the US Senate and the House of Representatives have voted for the renewal of the existing anti-Iran sanctions for more 10 years. This is while the US is a member of the P5+1 group which signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) not to impose fresh sanctions on Iran.

Foad Izadi, a professor at the University of Tehran, says US lawmakers have found an opportunity to violate the spirit of the JCPOA in a bid to show their resentment to the agreement.

“The US Congress does not like the nuclear agreement and they are trying to basically destroy the agreement,” Izadi told Press TV on Friday night.

“The people who never liked the nuclear agreement in Washington are seeing their wishes basically answered,” he added.

Izadi said Iran has done its part of the bargain but those who never liked the agreement in the US "are coming up with innovative ways and measures to basically destroy it.”

“The problem with extending this sanctions law for 10 years is that if [US President-elect Donald] Trump decides not to waive the sanctions then the whole nuclear agreement will be destroyed,” he said.

Izadi said US lawmakers seem to have not read the nuclear agreement, or they would have noticed that the nuclear-related sanctions cannot be reintroduced or re-imposed.

"The lawmakers who could not prevent the agreement from being signed by President Obama, find out that the situation is ripe after the election of Trump to go ahead with their plan to discard the accord."

The academic said he is not optimistic about the fate of the nuclear agreement because the president-elect and his cabinet do not seem to be happy with it.

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