Press Release: EMET Applauds President Trump for Taking the First Courageous Step in Extricating the U.S. from the Dangerous Iran Nuclear Deal

By inserting the United States as just one of six nations (the P5 plus 1: the US, Russia, China, France, Great Britain plus Germany), the Obama administration engaged in an attack on our national sovereignty. It made it that much more complicated for the US legislative body to exercise their constitutional responsibility of oversight and review, and if found that Iran has been in violation of that deal, to extricate ourselves from it.

This was further complicated by Obama making an end-run around Congress and going directly to the UN Security Council to enshrine it by a vote (although it has no standing under international law).
Although the US was the essential driver of the deal, it now becomes increasingly difficult to get out of it because America now appears like just one of 6 passengers. This was Obama’s calculation all along.
This is exactly what the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they asserted that a treaty had to be ratified by 2/3 of the Senate. That is why members of the US Congress had felt that they needed to play more of their constitutionally mandated role of oversight and review and drafted the Iranian Nuclear Review Act of 2015, known in shorthand as Corker-Cardin.

Contrary to popular belief, President Trump did not de-certify the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, (JCPOA) or withdraw from the nuclear agreement on Friday. He simply did what he had been legally mandated to do under Corker-Cardin: to certify that the lifting of Iranian sanctions is in the national security interest of the United States.

In contrast to many European leaders, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, an arm of the United Nations which has not actually been on the ground in Iran to monitor the deal since before implementation day, (January of 2016), and has been dependent on Iran to monitor itself, President Trump has told the truth.

“I firmly believe that a foundation built upon wishful thinking, falsehoods and flimsy assurances could not stand. But only serves to empower the most ruthless actors on the world’s stage, as lonely as it is the first step towards a sound and healthy foreign policy that will end up saving the lives of Americans, and those of our friends and allies,” said Sarah Stern, founder and president of EMET.

To read EMET’s fact sheets regarding Iran, and the Iran deal, and Iranian aggression, please click here.