LEE JIN-MAN/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Iran is in complicance with the international nuclear deal, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command said Wednesday, the same day that President Trump said he has “made a decision” on whether to certify Iran as compliant.
“The facts are that Iran is operating under the agreements that we signed up for under the JCPOA,” Gen. John Hyten said at an event at the Hudson Instititue, a conservative think tank.
“But at the same time they are rapidly, rapidly deploying and developing a whole series of ballistic missiles and testing ballistic missiles at all ranges that provides significant concerns to not just the United States, but our allies,” Hyten noted. Still, he said, “we have an agreement that our nation has signed. And I believe that when the United States of America signs an agreement, it’s our job to live up to the terms of that agreement, our job to enforce that.”
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said that he has reached a decision on recertifying or scrapping the deal. “I have decided,” he told reporters after a bilateral meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. “I’ll let you know what the decision is.”
The Trump administration has until October 15 to recertify Iran’s compliance.
On the campaign trail, Trump suggested renegotiating the deal, something that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says will not happen. “Either the JCPOA will remain as-is, in its entirety, or it will no longer exist,” Rouhani told reporters.
“There will be absolutely no changes, no alterations, nothing done to the current framework of the JCPOA.”
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