US: Nuke deal allows Iran to turn into N Korea

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

Washington's ambassador to the United Nations warned Sept. 5 that, if left unchanged, the Iran nuclear deal could allow Tehran to pose the same kind of missile threat to U.S. cities as North Korea.

President Donald Trump is due to decide in the middle of next month whether he believes Iran is living up to its commitments or whether to seek new U.S. sanctions that could torpedo the accord.

His ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, would not say explicitly what her advice has been.

"I'm not making the case for decertifying. What I am saying is that, should he decide to decertify he has grounds to stand on," she told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute.

Under a 2015 deal signed by Iran and six world powers, Tehran is supposed to roll back its nuclear program and submit to inspections in return for Washington and its allies lifting some sanctions.

Thus far, the IAEA U.N. nuclear watchdog and the U.S. State Department have reported that Tehran has complied with the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). However, Haley argues, Tehran's ongoing development of ballistic missiles should be taken into account, while warning that the terms of the JCPOA begin to expire in ten years' time.

“That's the day when Iran's military may very well already have the missile technology to send a nuclear warhead to the United States, a technology that North Korea only recently developed," she said.