Trump team raises rhetoric against Iran
The Trump administration is stepping up its rhetoric against Iran even as it acknowledges the country is in compliance with a nuclear deal the president has long derided.
Since fulfilling a legal requirement to certify to Congress that Iran is complying with the deal, administration officials have repeatedly slammed Tehran. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson compared the country to North Korea, and President Trump declared that Iran is violating the “spirit” of the deal.
The administration’s actions were to make sure that “the certification wasn’t perceived as a newfound approval of the [deal] as a mechanism for dealing with Iran,” said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert at the Brookings Institution. “The statements that we’ve seen from Tillerson are reflective of what I see as an emerging focus on Iran as a major priority.”
Trump has long railed against the 2016 deal between Iran and six world powers that requires Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for lifted sanctions.
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/329991-trump-team-raises-rhetoric-against-iran
