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April 19, 2017

NIAC Finds Secretary Tillerson’s Statements on Iran and the JCPOA Deeply Troubling

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ContactJamal Abdi
Phone: 202-386-6408
Email: [email protected]

Washington, DC – The National Iranian American Council issued the following statement following the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s statements on the review of U.S. policy towards Iran and the JCPOA:

“Today Secretary Tillerson and the Trump administration placed the security of the American people and the world at grave risk.

“Public statements lambasting the nuclear deal with Iran as a “failed approach” and comparing the country with North Korea are reckless and blatantly false. It is nothing less than unnerving for the Secretary of State to ignore the advice of nearly all security experts, foreign and domestic, on the efficacy of the nuclear deal.

“This comes just one day after Secretary Tillerson acknowledged that Iran was complying with the terms of the nuclear deal. Such ambivalent policy positions have come to define this administration. 

“Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took a position on Iran and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that amounts to an extreme departure from that of our traditional allies, other world powers, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). By asserting that the JCPOA does not prevent a nuclear Iran, Secretary Tillerson has chosen to ignore the vast majority of U.S. security experts, as well as the intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, China, and even Israel.

“Such incendiary rhetoric serves no purpose other than to undermine a nuclear deal that is working, and that by Tillerson’s own admission Iran is in compliance with. Secretary Tillerson followed these remarks by saying that the Trump administration will not “pass the buck” of a nuclear Iran to the next administration. There is little room to interpret this statement as anything less than a proclamation of the Trump administration’s intent to scrap the nuclear deal and reset the United States on a path to war.

“If this happens our credibility will be forever undermined, not only with Iran, but with the other world powers the United States negotiated with to achieve the JCPOA. Indeed, even the open discussion of leaving the nuclear dear erodes our national credibility and deters nations from future negotiations with the United States.

“Secretary Tillerson’s remarks today lend credence to hardliners in Iran who warned of any negotiation with the United States and politically isolates Iran’s voices of moderation. Our allies have repeatedly indicated that they will not follow our lead in destroying the nuclear deal nor will they join us on a path to war with Iran.”

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