Nikki Haley opposes President-elect Biden’s plan to rejoin Iran nuclear deal
Nikki Haley opposes President-elect Biden’s plan to rejoin Iran nuclear deal
Nikki Haley, the former US envoy to the United Nations, on Monday opposed President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to re-join the Iranian nuclear deal, saying the Trump administration’s sanctions on Tehran deprived the regime of the money it needed to harm American military.
“The Iran deal is only as reliable & trustworthy as the partner who signs the agreement & Iran is neither of those. Iran continues to enrich uranium, sponsor terrorists & call for Israel & America’s destruction. Members of the Iranian parliament recently chanted ‘Death to America’,” Haley tweeted.
In an interview to The New York Times, President-elect Joe Biden had expressed his desire to rejoin the Iranian nuclear deal, which was one of the key foreign policy accomplishments of the previous Obama Administration.
In 2018, President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from Iranian nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Under the deal, Iran had agreed to greatly limit its nuclear program through 2025. However, Trump argued that this gave the Iranians a pathway to nuclear weapons.
“Instead of coddling the mullahs, @realDonaldTrump withdrew from Obama’s Iran deal and imposed ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Iran. These sanctions dried up the Iranian economy and deprived the regime of the money it needed to fund its terrorist activities and harm our military,” Haley said.
Trump not only imposed one of the toughest sanctions on Iran but also ordered the killing of Qassem Suleimani, the powerful Iranian general who died in a US drone strike in Iraq this January.
Biden and his advisors have said that they will rejoin the deal, if Iran returns to compliance with the agreement.
“Iran wants the same cushy deal it had before: sanctions relief & cash with few demands in return. The regime wants to continue sponsoring terrorists throughout the Middle East, build up its missile arsenal, and only face short-term restrictions on developing its nuclear arsenal,” Haley said.
The Los Angeles Times on Monday said that sanctions on Iran and tariffs on imports from China, two key pieces of the current president’s agenda, could remain in place as Biden plots his own strategy and seeks new negotiations.
Source: The Economic Times
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