TEHRAN – Three U.S. lawmakers have introduced a resolution to urge the Trump administration to re-enter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear agreement.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congressman David Price, and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky introduced the resolution Tuesday, according to U.S. House of Representatives website.

In addition to rejoining the JCPOA, the resolution encourages the Trump administration to engage in immediate de-escalation measures and to use sustained diplomacy as a tool to address other challenges with Iran.

“Trump’s Iran policy is responsible for this self-inflicted crisis,” says Congresswoman Barbara Lee. 

“Trump’s Iran policy is responsible for this self-inflicted crisis,” said Congresswoman Lee. 

“As someone who played a key role in building Congressional support for the JCPOA, it is disappointing to find ourselves dangerously close to a military confrontation with Iran because of the administration’s disastrous decision to unilaterally withdraw from the Iran deal on May 8, 2018,” she said. “We need serious and sustained diplomatic engagement to remove us from the path to war and on to a path of peace and diplomacy, and that’s what this critical resolution calls for.”

“If we look at current events, we see that President Trump’s rash decision to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear agreement has brought us no closer to bringing Iran to the negotiating table – it’s only emboldened Iranian hardliners, incentivized Iran to return to previously prohibited nuclear activity, and threatened our own credibility and leadership,” said Congressman Price. 

“With no strategy in Iran and no vision in the Middle East, President Trump’s reckless decision to pull out of the JCPOA has increased tensions around the world, pushed the United States closer to armed conflict with Iran, and severely diminished U.S. leadership and leverage,” notes Congresswoman Schakowsky. 
 

“This resolution sends a strong message from Congress to the administration: we must return to the JCPOA, and we must return to meaningful diplomatic engagement—peace, security, and United States leadership is at stake,” he said.

“With no strategy in Iran and no vision in the Middle East, President Trump’s reckless decision to pull out of the JCPOA has increased tensions around the world, pushed the United States closer to armed conflict with Iran, and severely diminished U.S. leadership and leverage,” said Congresswoman Schakowsky. 

“We have been isolated from allies, have opened the door for Iran to become non-compliant, and have dissuaded other nations from negotiating agreements with the United States,” she added. 

The Trump administration has been widely criticized for its withdrawal from the JCPOA, a multilateral agreement that was struck between Iran and six world powers, namely the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.

On May 8, exactly one year after the U.S. pullout, Iran announced a partial withdrawal from some aspects of the pact, saying that the country would no longer adhere to some of the limits on its nuclear activities. It also threatened to step up uranium enrichment if an agreement is not made within 60 days to protect it from the sanctions’ effects. 

In follow-up to that deadline, on July 7 Iran announced that it has started enriching uranium to a higher purity than the 3.67% as the Europeans missed the 60-day deadline to devise a concrete mechanism to protect the country from the U.S. sanctions.

MH/PA