Tagged Iran sanctions

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen honored in Israel for her record on eve of her retirement

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Oct. 22, 2018. (Amos Ben-Gershom/Israeli Government Press Office)

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, touring Israel on one of her final overseas trips as a congresswoman, is being feted as one of the Jewish state’s best friends in Congress. Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1989, met Monday… Read more »

Trump and his foreign policy team are on separate pages. What does it mean for Israel and Iran?

President Donald Trump, right, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appear to have different views on Iran. (Illustration by Charles Dunst/JTA; credit: Maxpixel, Wikimedia Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump says he’s ready to meet Iran’s leadership without preconditions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seems to have preconditions. The disconnect of recent weeks was sharpened Monday when the White House announced the reimposition of sanctions on Iran, the first to be reintroduced since… Read more »

Op-Ed: I voted against the Iran nuclear deal. Withdrawing from it is a mistake.

Sen. Ben Cardin speaks at a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., introducing the Iran Policy Oversight Act of 2015, Oct. 1, 2015. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran nuclear deal, is bad policy and calls into question America’s international credibility. Mr. Trump has now set the international community on a slippery slope, imperiling the national security… Read more »

After pulling out of the Iran deal, Trump is open to Plan B — but no one knows what that is

President Donald Trump announces his decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, May 8, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When President Donald Trump teased and then announced he would be pulling the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, the next obvious question was, what next? What was Plan B? “Congress has heard nothing about an alternative,” Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the chairman of the… Read more »

Congress will miss its deadline to reimpose sanctions on Iran deal. What happens next?

Activists in front of the White House protest President Donald Trump's decision to decertify the Iran deal, Oct. 12, 2017. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — Two months ago, President Donald Trump triggered a deadline about to come due on the Iran nuclear deal by decertifying Iran’s compliance. That meant Congress had 60 days to reimpose sanctions. Sixty days later — on Dec. 12 — Congress is not about to reimpose… Read more »

Trump is ready to decertify the Iran deal. What does that mean?

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 20, 2017. (Kevin Hagen/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump will present a major foreign policy speech this week on the Iran nuclear deal, reportedly decertifying its compliance with the 2015 agreement. His words, ostensibly, will have consequences. Or perhaps not because of the type of decertification Trump reportedly is choosing. Or everything… Read more »

Does Trump want to scrap the Iran deal? If so, this is how he does it.

President-elect Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech as Vice President-elect Mike Pence looks on at the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan, Nov. 9. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

  WASHINGTON (JTA) – Enforce the Iran deal. Violate the Iran deal. Leave it to Congress. Do nothing. President-elect Donald Trump has an array of options before him when he assumes the presidency on Jan. 21, according to supporters and opponents of the deal. Reached last year between Iran and six major powers led by the… Read more »

Nuclear deal will let Americans buy Iranian caviar, not stocks

Iranians walk through Tehran's old main bazaar, March 18, 2014. (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – If you’re an American who likes Iranian caviar and pistachios, you’re in for a treat. Once the nuclear deal with Iran is implemented, the U.S. sanctions that until now have blocked the export of those Iranian foodstuffs into the United States will be lifted. Bon appetit.… Read more »

Op-Ed: Iran nuclear deal could be a blessing in disguise for Israel

Few people who are now furiously debating the Iranian deal have actually read the 160 pages of the agreement. I doubt it if they will ever do, and anyway, it will not sway them from their entrenched positions. Those who support it would stick to what President Obama has… Read more »

Following Iran deal, Israel to lobby Congress — and reconsider a strike

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to the media from his office in Jerusalem following the finalization of a nuclear deal with Iran, July 14, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decried an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program hundreds of times — most notably in a March speech to a joint session of Congress. Now that the agreement is signed, experts say Netanyahu has one way left to block it: Go… Read more »

Op-Ed: What we’d like to hear from Netanyahu on Iran

NEW YORK (JTA) — Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu: As American Jewish progressive Zionists, we are deeply worried about the threat that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to Israel. We know you would like pro-Israel Jews to publicly defend your positions on Iran and your plans to speak to Congress next… Read more »

Dems’ confronting of Israelis raises Netanyahu speech stakes

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In tense meetings, top congressional Democrats — including a number of Jewish lawmakers — confronted Israeli officials about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the minority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, met Wednesday with Yuli Edelstein, the Knesset… Read more »

Beyond sanctions and kerfuffles, the Iran deal Netanyahu wants to avoid

WASHINGTON (JTA) – When Benjamin Netanyahu faces the Congress next month, two things are unlikely to come up in his speech: a consideration of diplomatic protocol and an analysis of the efficacy of sanctions. Media attention ahead of the speech has focused on the diplomatic crisis set off by… Read more »

As Iran deadline looms, Obama faces intense skepticism in Congress

From left, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, EU Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton of the European Union, Omani foreign Minister Yusaf bin Alawi and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at three-way negotiations about the future of Iran's nuclear program in Muscat, Oman, Nov. 9, 2014. (U.S. State Department)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — With the Nov. 24 deadline for an Iran deal looming, there’s no guarantee that the Obama administration will achieve its long-sought goal of an agreement over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. But there’s at least one outcome that is a virtual certainty: Obama will face a… Read more »

After bruising Iran sanctions battle, AIPAC conference is all about comity

U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), at left, and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) deliver remarks during the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's Policy Conference in Washington. (Somodevilla/Getty Images)

 WASHINGTON (JTA) — You’ve got your rousing church choir, your multi-denominational trio of rabbis quoting Torah, your montages of Israelis and Palestinians coming together and, above all, your pleas to please, please, please be nice to one another. Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, Jew, Christian, black, white, Hispanic — the… Read more »

Support diplomacy with Iran

I am Jewish and among my passions are peace and social justice. I went to Washington, D.C. Feb. 3-4 as a member of a delegation supporting diplomacy with Iran. I don’t want any Americans to ever have to say they are veterans of the Iran War. I have seen… Read more »

As confab nears, AIPAC still trying to figure out its legislative agenda

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual policy conference on March 5, 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The highlight of AIPAC’s year is the final day of its annual policy conference, when thousands of activists ascend Capitol Hill to lobby for the passage of the organization’s legislative priorities. But just three weeks before the conference, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is facing… Read more »

As Kerry works on peace framework, Jewish groups keeping low profile

Martin Indyk, the U.S. special envoy for Ben Gurion International Airport on Jan. 5, 2014. (Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv/Flash90)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — As the Obama administration prepares to unveil a framework plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Jewish groups have responded by laying low. In contrast to the noisy Iran sanctions contretemps between the administration and much of the pro-Israel community, the leading centrist Jewish groups… Read more »

In Iran sanctions debate, what the sides are arguing about

The first fuel is loaded at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant on Aug. 21, 2010. (Iran International Photo Agency via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A loose coalition of advocacy groups and policy experts, including a pair of dovish Jewish organizations, have been coordinating messaging in support of the Obama administration’s Iran strategy. The coalition was convened by the Ploughshares Fund, which advocates for a nuclear-free world. Coalition participants — J… Read more »