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Trump orders interagency review of nuclear deal with Iran

The deal on the Iranian nuclear program will be reviewed to determine whether lifting sanctions is in line with US national interests

WASHINGTON, April 19. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump ordered the National Security Council to review the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said.

"President Donald J. Trump has directed a National Security Council-led interagency review of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that will evaluate whether suspension of sanctions related to Iran pursuant to the JCPOA is vital to the national security interests of the United States," Tillerson said in a letter to Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives.

Tillerson added that when the US administration expects to work jointly with the Congress on the issue once the interagency review is over.

The US top diplomat said that Tehran complies with all provisions for the agreement, but "Iran remains a leading state sponsor of terror, through many platforms and methods."

US Foreign Policy magazine reported on Monday that the Trump administration was considering enhancing the current US sanctions against Iran in order to make it comply with the nuclear deal. Expanding US sanctions against Iran remains one of the options currently on table, according to the US magazine.

Iran and the P5+1 group of international mediators signed a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program on July 14, 2015 in Vienna. Under the deal, Iran undertakes to limit its nuclear activities and allow transparent international control of its nuclear program. Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will monitor nuclear facilities in Iran for the next 25 years.

In exchange, UN, US and European Union sanctions will be gradually removed from Iran. The arms embargo imposed by UN Security Council will be kept in place for five years, ban for supplying ballistic missile technologies to Iran - for eight years. If any points of the agreement are violated by Iran, sanctions against the country will be renewed.