US officials defend Iran deal before skeptical senators

Dehghan’s statement came a day after United Nations sanctions monitors said that Iran had violated a Security Council resolution in its October test of a nuclear-capable ballistic missile.

US Secretary of State John Kerry welcomed the decision to close the investigation into whether Iran once had a secret nuclear weapons programme.

Amano produced a report this month that strongly suggested Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program until 2003 and continued weapons-related work until 2009.

These expectations coincide with the publication of a report on 2 December 2015 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (the “IAEA”), the body responsible for verifying Iran’s implementation, on the history of Iran’s alleged attempts to develop nuclear weapons. “Iran is also reducing its stockpile of various forms of enriched uranium”.

Iran’s missile launch is also a test of the global community’s ability to coalesce to take action to address potential Iranian violations of the nuclear deal. He said those controls “allow us to interrupt, delay and impede in every way possible the transfer of such technology”.

China appreciates the efforts of the IAEA and Iran in solving the issue, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said at a regular press briefing.

Asked whether he thought Iran would view renewing the legislation as a USA violation of the Iran nuclear deal, Mull said it would be hard to predict.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who has overseen a thaw with the West, voiced hope on Wednesday that the sanctions would be removed in January, “delivering one of the electoral promises of the government” before elections on February 26.

According to Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Vladimir Voronkov, Iran will send the surplus amount of enriched uranium to Russian Federation already in the coming days.

Senators from both parties expressed concern about recent actions taken by Iran, which they fear could foreshadow Iranian noncompliance. Bob Corker of Tennessee, says the agreement is off to a “terrible start”.

Iran’s Defence Minister Hossein Dehqan said here on Wednesday that the long-range Emad missile which Iran test-fired in October was “totally conventional”, the official IRNA news agency reported.

“Can anyone here point to any substantive consequences that Iran has faced?”

The White House said it would not rule out additional steps against Iran over the test of the medium-range Emad rocket, on the same day that the global nuclear watchdog concluded its 12-year investigation into Iran’s nuclear activities.

“By doing nothing to respond, we run the risk of potentially indicating to the Iranians that we’re willing to tolerate non-nuclear activity in a way that could make the Iranians misbehave more than they would otherwise”, Samore said. Following that test, Ayotte and Sen.