GOP lawmakers hail Trump’s move on Iran

Republicans on Capitol Hill are welcoming President Trump’s move Friday to decertify the Obama-era nuclear deal reached between the U.S., Iran and five other global powers.

{mosads}GOP lawmakers said Trump’s move to decertify the deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – while stopping short of withdrawing from the accord – signaled the United States’s deep issues with the deal.

“I think the statement that it would send is we’re not happy with terms of JCPOA,” Rep. Tom Garrett (R-Va.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Hill.

“Declining to certify might present an opportunity to see if we can get Iran back to table to fix some of the blatant problems and deficiencies that exist in the joint plan of action now,” said fellow committee member Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.).

Speaking from the White House on Friday, Trump declared that the nuclear deal was no longer in the United States’s national security interest.

“We cannot and will not make this certification,” Trump said.

Trump said Iran has “has committed multiple violations of the agreement” and accused Tehran of “not living up to the spirit of the deal,” but stopped short of withdrawing the U.S. from the 2015 accord, a key part of former President Barack Obama’s foreign policy.

Once officially decertified, Congress would have the power to reinstate sanctions against Iran. But Trump did not call on Congress to impose sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program and instead asked lawmakers to amend the Nuclear Agreement Review Act that requires the president’s certification every 90 days.