Trump to preserve JCPOA

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President Trump will keep the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and target the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in a new White House policy announced today.

The announcement will please allies concerned that the president would pull the US out of the deal, which was finalised at the start of 2016 and unilaterally impose comprehensive anti-nuclear sanctions that the JCPOA entailed.

The policy intensifies US government rhetoric against the Islamic state and holds it responsible for a range of actions damaging to US interests including supporting terrorism and militants challenging the status quo in the Middle East and developing ballistic missiles. It calls for international action about human rights violations.

This will please America’s Middle East allies including Saudi Arabia and the UAE which have charged Iran with interfering in their domestic affairs and supporting Houthi rebels in Yemen where both are part of a coalition supporting the internationally-recognised government.

The White House said President Trump has called for the JCPOA to be strictly enforced and for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to use its inspection rights to the full.

Trump said in a speech tonight that he would decertify the JCPOA. This will shift the burden of scrapping US involvement with the JCPOA to congress.