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Obama Touts Iran Deal ‘Adoption Day’

(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

The Iran nuclear deal has reached a new milestone — adoption day — and the White House is cheering.  

“Today, Iran begins to take the steps necessary to implement its … commitments, including removing thousands of centrifuges and associated infrastructure, reducing its enriched uranium stockpile from approximately 12,000 kilograms to 300 kilograms, and removing the core of the Arak heavy-water reactor and filling it with concrete so that it cannot be used again, among other steps,” President Barack Obama said in a written statement Sunday afternoon. And Obama is getting ready to live up to his part of the deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.  

“I have directed that the heads of all relevant executive departments and agencies of the United States begin preparations to implement the U.S. commitments in the JCPOA, in accordance with U.S. law, including providing relief from nuclear-related sanctions as detailed in the text of the JCPOA once the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has verified that Iran has completed all of its nuclear steps,” Obama said.  

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said in a statement the Obama administration “is looking more naive by the day” given what has transpired in the 90 days since the U.N. Security Council endorsed the deal.  

Royce cited a host of factors, including the Iran-Russia alliance backing Syria President Bashar Assad; Iran’s testing of a long-range ballistic missile in violation of U.N. sanctions; the conviction of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian on espionage charges while other Americans are also held by Iran; and a lack of cooperation by Iran in disclosing its previous bomb work.  

“If this is what the last 90 days look like, the next few years look like a disaster,” Royce said.

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