Leaders of the six of the seven world powers that brokered the treaty with Iran to curb its nuclear weapons program will meet Friday during the nuclear security summit in Washington to discuss the deal’s implementation.
All of those countries — China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. — are represented at the two-day summit, except for Russia.
They will receive a progress report fro the International Atomic Energy Agency, the global organization charged with inspecting Iran’s facilities and ensuring that Tehran is in compliance.
Despite conducting proactive ballistic missile tests, Iran is in compliance with the nuclear treaty, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said.
“We do believe they are complying,” Rhodes said. “This is a nuclear deal.”
Rhodes said Washington is concerned about the ballistic missiles and can respond accordingly, as the Obama administration did last week in sanctioning additional foreigners and companies for aiding Tehran’s ballistic missile program.
Some Republicans have complained that the nuclear agreement and Iran’s pledge to halt its ballistic missile program are intertwined, and have accused the Obama administration of holding off on missile sanctions over fears that Iran might walk away from the nuclear agreement.
But that is “a separate issue,” Rhodes emphasized, and the nuclear deal lessens the threat of Iran’s aggression on the conventional weapons front, he said. The treaty “takes off the table” the possibility that Iran would develop a nuclear warhead that a ballistic missile could deliver.
