With Iran Deal on Life Support, White House Looks to Finish the Job

• Emphasis mine:
• With Iran Deal on Life Support, White House Looks to Finish the Job
  by Jon Rainwater, https://www.commondreams.org/
  If sanctions and coercive diplomacy by the U.S. escalate into regime change, it wouldn’t be the first time. Ask the Iraqis.
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  Three years after the signing of the Iran nuclear agreement, an array of TV monitors in downtown Vienna still carries live images from Iranian nuclear facilities. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) still spend 3,000 calendar days a year conducting tests, gathering samples, and generally poking around Iran’s nuclear related facilities. Computers still monitor thousands of tamper-proof seals on nuclear material and equipment just in case the inspectors miss something. In other words, thanks to the deal, we can all still rest assured that all of Iran’s potential pathways to a nuclear bomb remain blocked. But thanks to Trump, that may not be the case for long.
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  Since the Trump administration’s unilateral withdrawal from the Iran agreement, Europe and Iran have been scrambling to negotiate measures that would maintain Iran’s economic and political incentives to stay in the agreement in the face of renewed U.S. sanctions. After all, the big carrot Iran got for agreeing to strict limits on its nuclear program was relief from crushing economic sanctions. Sanctions relief and the economic benefits associated with it was the only way Iran was able to sell the accord to its domestic audience. Without those benefits, Iran’s continued adherence to the terms of the deal is politically untenable.
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  With the full spectrum of U.S. sanctions set to kick in by November, the clock is running out for Iran and Europe to find a solution, and the Trump administration is playing some serious hardball. On the sidelines of the NATO summit last week, Secretary of State Pompeo prodded allies to “cut off all funding” to Iran. Meanwhile, when asked about tensions with Iran during a NATO press event, Trump nonchalantly conceded, “I would say there might be an escalation between us and the Iranians.”
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