U.S. senators and Trump administration officials held a meeting on Thursday in hopes of crafting a compromise legislation to tighten restrictions on Tehran while at the same time keeping the United States in the Iran nuclear deal.
H.R. McMaster, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, met on Thursday night with Senators Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Ben Carding, the panel’s top Democrat to discuss the potential legislation.
Trump announced in October that he would decertify the Iran deal, threatening to pull out of it completely. Since then, members of Congress have been working to craft a bipartisan compromise legislation which would allow the president enough political cover not to reimpose sanctions on Iranian oil before the next week deadline.
Some of the measures aides have been looking at include ending the requirement that Trump certify the deal every 90 days, as well as changing some of the so-called sunset provisions to allow the reimposition of U.S. sanctions.
Prior to the White House meeting, Corker expressed hope that enough progress had been made so that Trump does not reimpose sanctions.
“My sense is there’s a little momentum right now, and it doesn’t feel to me like we’re in a place where the president might do that, but who knows,” he told reporters, according to Reuters.
He added that with the recent anti-government protests in Iran, it would be wise not to do anything to turn the focus away from the Iranian government and toward the U.S.
The United Nations Security Council will meet this afternoon to discuss Iran after U.S Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley called for an emergency session to talk about the protests. The proposal, however, was rejected by Russia arguing that the UN Security Council had no role “in this issue.”
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