A key Democrat said Tuesday that he would support supplemental agreements to the Iran nuclear deal, but urged the administration in the interim to certify Iranian implementation of the deal ahead of an upcoming deadline.
President Donald Trump is required to report to Congress by Sunday on whether Iran is fully implementing the terms of the deal, as well as whether the nuclear deal is in America’s vital national security interests. Trump is reportedly expected to decertify this week, a move that would trigger a 60-day period during which Congress could debate reimposing sanctions lifted under the deal.
“I have said to some of the most senior members of the administration that he should instead lead in a bipartisan way,” said Delaware senator Chris Coons, who attended a meeting at the White House last week. “He would find broad bipartisan support in the Senate for urging new negotiations for an addendum agreement that would extend the JCPOA’s sunset clauses, address Iran’s reckless ballistic missile program and its other malign activity in the Middle East.”
Some European officials have suggested a similar openness to supplementing the deal.
“I believe our P5+1 partners, in particular our European allies, Germany, France, and the U.K., see Iran’s behavior as having gotten worse, not better, after this deal,” Coons said, referring to the countries that partook in deal negotiations. “I don’t think there is a big difference of opinion about Iran’s post-deal activities.”
Coons, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the president should certify this week and expressed concern that decertification would be misinterpreted as the U.S. quitting the accord. Administration officials and some GOP lawmakers have stressed that decertification would not pull the United States out of the deal.
“While the Trump administration is making a very fine distinction between a decertification that is a report to Congress rather than leaving the deal, I am concerned that that distinction will be lost on our allies and adversaries,” he said. Coons added if Trump decertifies, Congress could move forward with reimposing sanctions, which would “blow up” the deal.
The Delaware senator said that decertification could be construed as the U.S. saying that Iran has committed a material breach with respect to the agreement, one of the conditions under the compliance certification.
“The decertification that the president may engage in this week needs to be clearly described as simply his opinion, conveyed to the Senate, rather than evidence that Iran has violated the deal,” he said. “That is a likely misunderstanding.”
Under the law governing the certification, Trump could decertify on the basis that the nuclear deal is not in America’s vital national security interests.
Supporters of decertification have also laid out a number of bases on which Trump could claim that Iran is not fully, verifiably, and transparently implementing the deal and related agreements, another of the law’s conditions. That includes citing Iranian violations of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses the deal.
Some prominent proponents of decertification argue that it could be used as leverage in negotiations to improve the deal. Coons described that view as “exactly wrong.”
Coons suggested that Trump could instead recertify and set a 90-day period for deal negotiations. If those don’t work out, Trump could then himself exit the deal. That path closely mirrors one that was reportedly suggested by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
“If it is possible for the Trump administration to successfully persuade our European allies, Russia, China, and Iran to negotiate an expanded deal that addresses their ballistic missile program, I think that would be a significant improvement—or to negotiate an expanded deal that eliminates the sunset provisions in the JCPOA,” Coons said.
Trump officials have also been exploring the possibility of working with Congress to amend the law that requires the president to certify Iranian implementation to Congress every 90 days, Coons confirmed.
“My understanding is the president finds it personally objectionable to certify to Congress that a deal that he campaigned against and that he intensely dislikes is in the national security interest of the United States,” he said.
He said that he would be open to discussing amendments to that portion of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA) “if that’s what’s required to get the president to continue to embrace the JCPOA to the extent it is functioning.”
