BY JOSEPH TREVITHICK
President Donald Trump has revealed a new, overarching American policy strategy toward Iran, which includes refusing to certify the controversial deal over the country’s nuclear program and new sanctions that formally label an entire portion of the Iranian government, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a terrorist organization. The announcement has already prompted criticism from the Trump Administration’s domestic opponents, foreign allies, and unsurprisingly the government in Tehran and its international partners, and will undoubtedly have massive ramifications in the months to come.
Trump announced the major policy shift in a speech at the White House on Oct. 13, 2017. The plan is an apparent culmination of a much repeated campaign promise to hold Iran accountable and get rid of the Iran Deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. Trump has repeated slammed the agreement, most recently characterizing it as “one of the most incompetently drawn deals I've ever seen” in an interview with Fox News’ Shawn Hannity.“We hope that these new measures directed at the Iranian dictatorship will compel the government to reevaluate its pursuit of terror at the expense of its people,” Trump said in his speech. “We hope that our actions today will help bring about a future of peace, stability, and prosperity in the Middle East – a future where sovereign nations respect each other and their own citizens.”
Limited by what it is legally able to do without going through Congress, the Trump Administration only made two main policy decisions immediately. Each one is significant, though, so here's a quick overview.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/15136/an-explainer-on-how-the-trump-administration-just-changed-us-policy-toward-iran
