Trump expected to continue sanctions reprieve for Iran

President Donald Trump is expected to agree this week to continue granting Iran a reprieve from sanctions over its nuclear program, while again signaling his displeasure with the international nuclear deal that lifted the penalties, U.S. and European officials, congressional aides and others said.

The president also is expected to announce new sanctions linked to human rights and other issues that would not directly affect the nuclear agreement but would underscore U.S. concerns about Iran’s response to recent antigovernment protests and other actions, officials and others said.

The decision, first reported by the Associated Press, keeps the United States in the Iran deal, at least for the time being, despite Trump’s suggestion last year that he was inclined to walk away from it. Most of Trump’s national security advisers, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have urged him to waive the sanctions again.

Had Trump decided to reimpose nuclear sanctions that the Obama administration suspended almost two years ago to the day, the United States would have reneged on its commitment under the deal and isolated itself from allies that have insisted they will stick with it.

It also could have emboldened Iranian hardliners a few weeks after the protests, which spread amid deep disappointment that sanctions relief provided by the nuclear deal has not trickled down economically to ordinary Iranians. The political unrest rocked the clerical and political establishment in Tehran, and some analysts have said that the reimposition of broad economic sanctions would be seen as the United States’ turning its back on protesters and their economic demands.

Instead, any additional sanctions imposed now or in coming weeks would probably target the government or military elite, and not the wider Iranian economy, two officials said.

Changing the terms of the agreement itself would require approval from European co-signers as well as Russia, China and Iran.

Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, committing itself to never pursue nuclear weapons, but it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.