Iran Violates Nuclear Agreement for Third Time

(New York, N.Y.) – United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Chairman Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace said the following today in response to Iran’s announcement that it has installed advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium, the third violation of the JCPOA announced in recent weeks:   

“Iran’s installation of advanced centrifuges represents only its latest violation of the JCPOA.  How many more blatant breaches will Europe be willing to forgive in its never-ending quest to resuscitate a fatally flawed agreement? European inaction on multiple fronts—nuclear and non-nuclear—is enabling Iran to weaponize the nuclear deal as a shield to prevent any accountability for its malign behavior. It’s well past time that Europe recognizes Iranian behavior for what it is and abandons its policy of maximum placation in favor of maximum pressure.”

In a USA Today op-ed published on September 9, UANI Chairman Senator Joseph I. Lieberman explains why Democratic Presidential candidates should not support resurrecting the flawed Iran nuclear deal.

“From the beginning, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was a bad agreement for the United States and our allies in the region. That's because it only paused Iran’s nuclear project, instead of ending it, and did nothing to stop Iran’s aggression against its neighbors, or its support of terrorism, or its brutal repression of the Iranian people.”

“President Donald Trump saved the world from the worst of the JCPOA when he withdrew America from it last year and imposed broad new economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its leaders.”

"These economic contractions brought on by U.S. sanctions have also had a limiting effect on the Iranian regime’s hegemonic ambitions. Iran has halted a credit line to the murderous Assad regime in Syria. And reports quoting unnamed Hezbollah employees and State Department officials, published by The New York Times, The Washington Post and Fox News,  note Hezbollah and Hamas receiving less financial support from their patrons in Tehran."

“In sum, the Iranian regime has been put on the defensive more than ever before. However, the political dynamics of the Democratic presidential campaign risk giving the Iranians renewed hope that if they can make it through the pain of sanctions until January 2021, they can look forward to a Democratic president bringing America back into the JCPOA.”

“Most of the party's presidential candidates have said they would do that if elected.”

"In the Democratic debate this week, I hope the candidates will take a second look at this critically important foreign policy question.”

“The Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign is working. I hope Democrats will recognize that inconvenient truth, and use it to find a way to a new and better agreement instead of reviving the flawed, old one.”

To read Senator Lieberman’s USA Today op-ed in its entirety, please click here.