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January 16:Iran on Saturday freed four imprisoned Americans ... in exchange for the U.S.
release or pre-trial pardon of seven people of Iranian descent.
A fifth American in Iranian custody was also released.
The prisoner exchange came the same day the Iran nuclear deal was declared as
formally implemented, marking an extraordinary moment in the often-bitter
history of U.S.-Iran relations.
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/iran-prisoners-217875
Undated 2016:At around the same time [as the Iranian prisoner exchange], the U.S.
airlifted the equivalent of USD $400 million in various currencies to Tehran,
sparking conspiracy
theories about the timing:
July 22: House and
Senate negotiators announced an agreement was reached Saturday morning for a
bill that would include new sanctions against Russia, Iran, and North Korea ... the legislation will
give Congress a new ability to block [Trump's] administration from easing
sanctions on Moscow.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/22/politics/congress-deal-russia-sanctions/index.html
September 25: President Trump [tweeted]
“Iran just test-fired a Ballistic Missile capable of reaching Israel. They are
also working with North Korea. Not much of an agreement we have!”
October 12: Even some of Trump's own aides
have worried the President is more interested in deploying bellicose threats
against Tehran than taking productive steps toward stabilizing the region. It's
a fear that's shared by Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who must now
determine a feasible path for either salvaging the nuclear deal or taking steps
to dismantle it.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/13/politics/iran-deal-decertify/index.html
October 13: President Donald Trump will
announce a combative new strategy toward Iran on Friday, publicly rejecting the
United States' adherence to his predecessor's nuclear deal but stopping short,
for now, of scrapping the agreement entirely.
... the Trump administration
wants members of Congress to adopt new measures that would keep the deal intact,
while spelling out parameters by which the US would impose new sanctions should
Iran violate its agreements.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/13/politics/iran-deal-decertify/index.html
October 13:
Donald Trump has threatened to
terminate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal if Congress and US allies fail to amend the
agreement in significant ways.
“Based on the factual record I have put forward, I am announcing today that we
cannot and will not make this certification. We will not continue down a path
whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real
threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout,” Trump said at the White House.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/13/trump-iran-nuclear-deal-congress
October 13: World leaders were quick to
react to US President
Donald Trump's
decision to "decertify" an international deal on Iran's nuclear programme.
October 14: [John Kerry, the former U.S.
Secretary of State] said [President Donald Trump's decision not to certify that
Iran] is a "reckless abandonment of facts in favor of ego and ideology." Kerry,
who negotiated the deal, added that Trump "weakens our hand, alienates us from
our allies, empowers Iranian hardliners, makes it harder to resolve North Korea
and risks moving us closer to military conflict."
Iran's president said Friday the nuclear deal ... could not be revoked.
But Trump warned Friday in a statement that the waiver -- which must be issued
every 120 days to keep the sanctions from kicking back in -- will be the last he
issues and he delivered a stark ultimatum to European allies on Friday: "Fix the
deal's disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw."
http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/12/politics/president-donald-trump-iran-deal-waiver/index.html
March 13: Why Secretary of State nominee
Mike Pompeo is probably bad news for Iran
Pompeo, named as his pick for secretary of state by Trump on Tuesday shortly
after he announced Tillerson's departure on Twitter, has taken a notoriously
tough stance on Iran in the past in his erstwhile role as director of the CIA.
May 7: President Donald Trump took to
Twitter on Monday to condemn former
Secretary of State John Kerry for engaging in “shadow diplomacy”
to try to preserve the Iran nuclear deal by holding meetings and speaking with
major players, who, like Kerry, do not want Trump to withdraw the US from the
agreement.
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2018/05/07/trump-kerry-shadow-diplomacy-iran-deal/
May 8: The nuclear accord came after years
of diplomacy and negotiations over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, culminating in 2015
during President Barack Obama’s administration.
Whatever he decides, Trump said, the international agreement would expire in
seven years anyway, and Iran would be able to build nuclear weapons.
“... President Trump’s statement indicates either abject confusion over the
parameters of the JCPOA or a willful misinterpretation of that deal,” said
Alexandra Bell, senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and
Non-Proliferation. “Either way, it is dangerous, as Iran will never be ‘free to
go ahead and create nuclear weapons.’ ”
The hardliners didn't waste any time, and by late afternoon, they'd arranged a
noisy demonstration. In front of the old American embassy, we saw a crowd
chanting "death to America" and setting the American flag on fire.
May 21: Pompeo set to unveil US "Plan B" to
confront Iran
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will unveil the administration's "Plan B" for
countering Iran on Monday, an idea that some critics call a "pipe dream," while
others question whether the administration is coming clean on its goals for the
country.
May 24: Trump on collision course with
Congress on ZTE, the Chinese telecommunications giant sanctioned for doing
business with Iran and North Korea.
Trump has publicly signaled his desire to ease the restrictions on ZTE as he
seeks China's cooperation on North Korea talks and hammering out a trade deal.
There was no doubt that a tweet warning Iran it could suffer "consequences the
likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered" would get a great deal
of global attention, and to make sure that it did, Trump wrote most of the tweet
in capital letters.
August 7: The first set of U.S. sanctions
against Iran that had been eased under the landmark nuclear accord went back
into effect early Tuesday under an executive order signed by President Donald
Trump, targeting financial transactions that involve U.S. dollars, Iran’s
automotive sector, the purchase of commercial planes and metals including gold.
More U.S sanctions targeting Iran’s oil sector and central bank are to be
reimposed in early November.
September 6: One of America's most senior
former diplomats tells CNN that she believes the country is "at a very dangerous
place."
Wendy R. Sherman, former Undersecretary of State and President Obama's lead
nuclear negotiator with Iran, spoke with Christiane Amanpour as explosive
revelations about President Trump were leaking from Bob Woodward's new book,
"Fear."
"These are echoes of other books and other reporting we have heard about what
the Trump White House is like," Sherman told Amanpour on Wednesday. "What makes
this a bombshell is the author. There is no one more credible than Bob
Woodward."
The Trump administration has signaled a new phase in its confrontation with
Iran, threatening to retaliate for attacks by Iranian-backed militants in Iraq,
even as it moves to avoid a potentially messy public split with allies over
President Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal.
Days after rocket strikes near American diplomatic facilities in Baghdad and
Basra, the White House blamed Shia militia groups on Wednesday and said, “Iran
did not act to stop these attacks by its proxies in Iraq, which it has supported
with funding, training and weapons.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/us/politics/trump-iran-militants-iraq.html
October 3: U.S. ordered to lift some Iran
sanctions by International Court of Justice
November 12: President Trump’s sanctions
bring fear and misery for Iran’s air travelers, aviation industry
Iran’s isolation from the world has left it with one of the oldest
civil-aviation fleets in the world and facilitated a fatal trend in its
aviation-safety record that experts say is likely to continue amid President
Donald Trump’s renewal of economic sanctions on Tehran.
December 7: Iran's Rouhani denounces US
sanctions as 'economic terrorism'
He also accused US of trying to 'foment fear' among other countries to prevent
them from investing in Iran.
Countries and non-American companies face stiff penalties by the US if they
continue to do business with Iran. However, the US also issued waivers to
several countries, allowing them to continue buying Iranian oil.
