Iran Nuclear Deal

Islamic Republic has sent weapons to the Houthis in Yemen and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

“What’s happening today is part of a coordinated campaign of pressuring Tehran.”

In short, the Obama administration lied.

Officials also staged “roadshows” encouraging foreign financial engagement with the Islamic Republic.

Under secretary Sigal Mandelker warns companies about the risks of dealing with the Islamic Republic.

In first major foreign policy address, the secretary of state does an about-face on Obama-era efforts to downplay ties between the two.

Allies, committed to deal and looking to preserve economic benefits to Tehran, risk U.S. sanctions

President Trump cancels the Iran deal. Now comes the hard part.

With the delusion of U.S.-Iran harmony now over, what’s possible?

Ehud Barak was Israel’s 10th prime minister. Before and after that, he was Israel’s minister of defense. He also served as minister of foreign affairs, and chief of the General Staff of Israel’s defense forces. Today Barak and I had a wide-ranging conversation in which we spoke about Iran, Lebanon…

President says U.S. will work with allies, who are staying in the deal, on a ‘lasting solution.’

Why can’t Democratic grandees admit that somebody else is in charge?

The president will speak from the White House Tuesday afternoon to announce a decision that will affect the future of the Iran nuclear deal.

Netanyahu’s address triggers heated rhetoric from opponents and detractors of the deal.

Heads, Iran wins. Tails, the U.S. Loses.

Scott Walker said Monday he would be willing to campaign alongside President Trump in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections. The Wisconsin governor, who is running for a third term this fall, spoke at THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s Midwest Conservative Summit in Milwaukee and told my colleague Charlie…

The Israeli prime minister said his country has obtained thousands of the Islamic Republic’s secret documents.

Pompeo gets the Senate nod, but the headaches over confirmations may only get worse.

What sort of nuclear cooperation has been taking place under the auspices of the deal?

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday reiterated support for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in his address to the U.S. Congress. His remarks drew cheers from Democrats but a chilly reception from Iran hawks who want to withdraw from the deal.

Slapdash personnel decisions haunt the president and frustrate his party.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker said on Sunday that he expects President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal in May if progress is not made to fix it by then.

The Senate’s top Iran hawks heaped praise on the president’s nomination of CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Tuesday, and critics of the deal on and off Capitol Hill expressed confidence that Pompeo’s presence would place renewed pressure on negotiations to fix…

Top lawmakers are pushing to expand sanctions targeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), amid a declaration from a senior IRGC official that Iran’s missile production has tripled.

“Pyongyang is a crucial node in the international network of proliferation that already includes China and Russia as primary providers, Pakistan and North Korea as active disseminators, and Iran and perhaps Saudi Arabia among the final consumers. No less unsettling is the prospect that North Korea…

Iran has boosted its investments in militant and terrorist groups across the Middle East since the enactment of the 2015 nuclear deal, the nation’s top general who oversees U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.

There was an interesting announcement on Wednesday for Ben Rhodes, formerly the Obama White House deputy national security adviser. Rhodes, you may recall, caught some flack at the end of Obama’s presidency for admitting to the New York Times that he was manipulating the media in his efforts to…

President Trump’s administration made a significant policy move on Friday—extending the Iran deal by waiving nuclear sanctions, while simultaneously issuing new, non-nuclear sanctions against Iran in light of the recent protests there. But you’d be forgiven for forgetting all about that, because a…

This post has been updated.

As the deadline draws closer for the Trump administration to decide whether or not to certify Iranian compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal and another decision on sanctions, U.S. aerospace giant Boeing will be watching with extreme interest. The outcome has the potential to scuttle a pair of…

Texas senator Ted Cruz on Thursday suggested that President Donald Trump buck members of the foreign policy establishment who are “desperately” trying to save the 2015 nuclear deal and not waive sanctions lifted under the agreement ahead of a series of related deadlines.

Legislation that attempts to make good on President Donald Trump’s October demand to fix the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is still facing obstacles, days before Trump is due to decide whether to issue sanctions waivers that would keep the agreement alive—or kill it.

Say, where are those new sanctions on Iran? The White House was said last week to be considering new, non-nuclear sanctions against Iran in response to the anti-government and anti-regime protests—and the violent response by government forces. The administration last week did sanction five…

Following the recent protests across Iran and the impending deadlines related to the nuclear deal, President Trump faces a few big choices this week—and on some of them, his staff in the White House still isn’t quite sure what he’s going to do.

On Wednesday, January 3, Donald Trump tweeted:

The protests in Iran challenging the repressive Islamist regime present both an opportunity for the Trump administration, as one White House official puts it, and a challenge. The administration is quietly urging European and regional allies to join President Trump in offering support for the…

At this point, the evidence is irrefutable: The Obama administration got Iran wrong. So did the international foreign-policy establishment. So did the New York Times and nearly every major center-left media outlet in the United States and Europe.

Congressional Republicans are calling for answers on the Obama administration's reported efforts to derail an initiative that tracked Hezbollah’s international web of criminal activities, efforts that former officials said were fueled in large part out of a desire to secure the 2015 nuclear deal…

The Obama administration hobbled a covert initiative that tracked Hezbollah’s web of criminal activities, allowing millions of dollars to fall into the hands of the Iran-backed militia, according to a Politico report. Efforts to stymie the initiative, former officials told Politico, were fueled in…

In France, all right-thinking people know instinctively what the pensée unique is—the socially acceptable view on any subject that ensures a Parisian won’t get axed from the better dinner parties and weekends in Normandy. The Democratic party, which remains a more coherent concatenation than the…

Nikki Haley on Thursday presented what she described as undeniable evidence that Iran is supplying arms to militants in Yemen and charged that Tehran is fueling conflict in Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria—activities that she said fly in the face of United Nations resolutions.

GOP lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to make good on President Barack Obama’s promise that, because of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, inspectors “will have access where necessary, when necessary.”

In mid-October, President Trump was due to make a certification to Congress on four conditions about its nuclear deal. He has repeatedly said this deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), gave the Iranians too much for too little. On October 13, he surprised no one by…

"Do we want Iran to have a nuclear weapon or not?" asks Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in a video making its way around the Internet. “The answer? No. So why is President Trump trying to make it easier for Iran to get a nuclear weapon?”

Lawmakers will vote this week on strengthening sanctions against the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah and punishing Iran for its ballistic missile development, amid pressure from the Trump administration to come to a legislative solution related to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

"Do we want Iran to have a nuclear weapon or not?" asks Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in a video making its way around the Internet. “The answer? No. So why is President Trump trying to make it easier for Iran to get a nuclear weapon?”

In mid-October, President Trump was due to make a certification to Congress on four conditions about its nuclear deal. He has repeatedly said this deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), gave the Iranians too much for too little. On October 13, he surprised no one by…

This week on the Kristol Clear Podcast, editor at large Bill Kristol talks with host Eric Felten about the president's action on the Iran nuclear deal.

President Donald Trump refused to certify the Iran nuclear deal Friday, a move that has been described as one piece of a larger strategy to toughen U.S. policy toward Iran.

President Donald Trump will announce Friday he is decertifying the Iran deal is in the national security interests of the United States. In a speech outlining the administration’s new policy on Iran, the president will call on Congress to amend its Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act to insist on…

This piece has been updated with new information.

It’s Friday the thirteenth, and it’s also the day President Trump will announce his administration’s new Iran policy. That will come in a speech from the White House at 12:45 p.m., and Trump is expected to announce he will decertify that the sanctions relief afford to Iran under the nuclear deal.…

A key Democrat said Tuesday that he would support supplemental agreements to the Iran nuclear deal, but urged the administration in the interim to certify Iranian implementation of the deal ahead of an upcoming deadline.

This week on the Kristol Clear Podcast, editor at large Bill Kristol talks with Eric Felten about the prospects President Trump chooses not to certify Iran in compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Donald Trump is expected to decertify the Iran nuclear deal ahead of this month’s deadline. What that means, and how the president came to this decision, is the subject of a story in the brand-new issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD. The story, which I co-wrote with editor-in-chief Steve Hayes pulls back…

The most revealing moment in Rex Tillerson’s hastily convened press conference Wednesday came when he was asked about the most explosive element of the NBC News story published Wednesday morning: that in July Donald Trump’s secretary of State had called the president of the United States a “moron.”…

With the Oct. 15 deadline for certifying to Congress that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Donald Trump is set to deliver a speech next week regarding his intentions. According to a report this afternoon from Adam Kredo at the…

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, deputy managing editor Kelly Jane Torrance talks with host Eric Felten about Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's testimony on the Iran nuclear deal and whether the president will decertify the deal.

Hawkish Republican senators are advising President Donald Trump to decertify the Iran nuclear deal in October, a move that critics of the agreement see as a key step in changing U.S. policy toward Iran.

Iran has ramped up its illicit activities in Syria and Iraq, the U.S. military's top general told lawmakers Tuesday, and the Islamic Republic has been boosted in such pursuits by the funds it received under the 2015 nuclear deal.

European officials are signaling openness to cracking down on Iran’s support for terrorism and improving on the 2015 nuclear deal, which one diplomatic official attributed on Monday to the Trump administration’s tough talk.

The Trump White House has yet to roll out its much-anticipated, comprehensive, government-wide Iran policy review, but administration principals have met over the last few weeks to iron out details regarding the nuclear deal with Iran, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. On…

Lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee are hinting at still-secret details related to Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal that the president could use to back up a potential October decertification.

The Trump White House has yet to roll out its much-anticipated, comprehensive, government-wide Iran policy review, but administration principals have met over the last few weeks to iron out details regarding the nuclear deal with Iran, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. On…

The Trump administration has completed its comprehensive review of America’s Iran policy, according to an administration source, setting the stage for a possible recalibration of the nuclear deal with that country, which Donald Trump campaigned against in last year’s election.

Has there been an administration in the modern era where the internal debates are hashed out in so public a manner? Consider Tuesday, when two members of Donald Trump’s cabinet spoke out forcefully on unresolved policy questions.

This article has been updated with information that Haley provided in her speech.

The State Department would not respond to a warning from Iran's president that it would be an act of political self-destruction for President Donald Trump to dismantle the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Six months into its existence, the Trump administration seems unsure what its stance toward Iran ought to be. That’s less because the current president and his advisers don’t know what they think about Iran’s leaders than because the previous president committed the United States to a reckless and…

Texas senator Ted Cruz dubbed the Trump administration’s certification that Iran is fully implementing the 2015 nuclear deal a “serious mistake” Wednesday.

Donald Trump hates the Iran nuclear deal. Brokered by the Obama administration and officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement has the stated purpose of preventing Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability. But the president believes the deal gave Iran…

Donald Trump hates the Iran nuclear deal. Brokered by the Obama administration and officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement has the stated purpose of preventing Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability. But the president believes the deal gave Iran…

President Donald Trump plans to recertify Iranian compliance with the Iran nuclear deal before the congressionally mandated deadline to do so on Monday, according to four sources with knowledge of his thinking on the issue. The decision, which continues to provide Iran sanctions relief for their…

Iranian officials are slamming a freshly approved crop of congressional sanctions as a breach of the 2015 nuclear deal and have vowed to take reciprocal measures. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are underscoring the need for penalties on Tehran and dismissing the recent rhetoric as par for…

Top officials from the Obama administration are working to stymie congressional pressure on Iran, including through a quiet push in Congress by an organization that has been criticized for helping mislead the public about the Iran deal, according to correspondence obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

Details of the United States' 2016 prisoner swap with Iran continue to surface more than a year later, forming a picture much different from the one the Obama administration presented at the time. The latest revelations are the most shocking yet. Under the deal, the United States granted clemency…

Last week the Trump administration sent a letter to House speaker Paul Ryan to certify that the Islamic Republic of Iran is in compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly referred to as the Iran nuclear deal. On the campaign trail, Donald Trump had called it the "worst deal…

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, reporter Jenna Lifhits weighs in on the reports that former President Obama's Iranian appeasement went even further than had been previously reported. The Obama administration released bad actors, pushed the DOJ out of the loop, and did Iran far more favors than…

The Obama administration's controversial January 2016 prisoner swap stymied its own counterproliferation efforts against Iran that took years to carefully construct and orchestrate, Politico reports. The move fits into a broader slowdown within the administration, before and during negotiations for…

The Trump administration is facing pressure to definitively rule out a longstanding request by Iran to import 950 tons of natural uranium, according to government sources and proliferation experts who spoke to THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Tehran has signaled it will petition again for the yellowcake next…

Officially, the Trump administration certified this week that Iran has complied in the strictest terms with the requirements of the nuclear deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. But as President Donald Trump indicated in a Thursday press conference with Italian prime…

Last week the Trump administration sent a letter to House speaker Paul Ryan to certify that the Islamic Republic of Iran is in compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly referred to as the Iran nuclear deal. On the campaign trail, Donald Trump had called it the "worst deal…

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson slammed the Iran nuclear deal for its limited scope and eventual sunset date Wednesday, and said the Trump administration is conducting an exhaustive review of its Iran policy.

Will the Trump administration scrap the Iran nuclear deal, or is the basic framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action here to stay? On Thursday, the deputies of the National Security Council will hold their first meeting to discuss the Trump administration's review of Iran's compliance…

Late Tuesday night, the Associated Press first reported that the Trump administration had certified that Iran has so far been compliant in the nuclear deal forged by the Obama administration. The deal had been sharply criticized by Republicans and even a few Democrats, and its undoing was one of…

Top Iranian officials are boasting that the nuclear deal enabled the country to make progress in developing advanced centrifuges, and broad production of some advanced models has already begun in the year since the deal was implemented, per Iranian media.

Congress should as soon as possible consider a bill that slaps sanctions on Iran over its illicit non-nuclear activities, Democratic lawmakers who supported the 2015 Iran nuclear deal told THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

Please see the editor's note at the bottom of this piece.

The Obama administration structured the Iran nuclear deal to cover up Iranian violations, which may make it impossible to rigorously enforce the landmark agreement as Trump administration officials have suggested, according to a top Republican senator.

Donald Trump has promised a foreign policy of muscular retrenchment, in which a better-resourced U.S. military intimidates our enemies without serving as a global cop. More than any president since Richard Nixon, our new commander in chief sees virtue in brutal authoritarians, especially if they…

The Trump administration's early responses to illicit Iranian activities signal to Tehran that the nuclear deal is on life support, a former top diplomat said Thursday.

Sanctions the Trump administration imposed on Iran after the country conducted another ballistic missile launch are more symbolic than punitive, a former Obama administration Treasury Department official said Monday.

During a White House briefing Wednesday afternoon, spokesman Sean Spicer brought National Security Adviser Mike Flynn to the podium to deliver a prepared statement offering more detail on Iran's recent "destabilizing behavior" in the region.

Top Democratic lawmakers are calling for strong action in response to Iranian ballistic missile activity after Tehran conducted another test-fire over the weekend, its first since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, according to statements provided to THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

The Obama administration left top lawmakers, including leaders on the congressional committees charged with overseeing American foreign policy, in the dark about a secret deal to send Iran more than one hundred metric tons of natural uranium, according to statements provided to THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

The Obama administration misled top lawmakers about the transfer of billions of dollars in assets to Iran, according to sources in and out of Congress who spoke to THE WEEKLY STANDARD, and a range of questions remain about the mechanics of the payments.

Iran was given secret exemptions allowing the country to exceed restrictions set out by the landmark nuclear deal inked last year, some of which were made public this week by the United Nations nuclear watchdog and others that are likely still being withheld, according to diplomatic sources and a…

The Obama administration is facing renewed criticism that it is avoiding confronting Iran over a widening list of the Islamic Republic's sanctions violations and military activities, after State Department officials would not commit to taking punitive action against a top Iranian military official…

A 10-year extension of long-standing Iran sanctions will become law without President Obama's signature, in an apparent symbolic move after both chambers of Congress passed the package by a near-unanimous margin.

Top Democratic lawmakers are challenging the Obama administration's decision to keep a range of unclassified documents related to the Iran nuclear deal away from the public eye, amid mounting calls from Trump insiders and Republican lawmakers urging the incoming Trump administration to release the…

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday ripped last summer's landmark nuclear deal with Iran and said he would work with president-elect Donald Trump to remedy its shortcomings.

Senate Democrats are ripping Iran over threats issued by top Iranian officials to retaliate if Congress extends sanctions that the Obama administration has said are permitted under last summer's nuclear deal, according to conversations with lawmakers conducted by THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

Will President-elect Donald Trump crash the Iran deal on day one, as he said on the campaign trail? If so, Barack Obama's signature foreign policy initiative, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), will melt into air. Obama allies and Iran deal supporters at home and abroad are already…

Iran will likely use the Obama administration's final weeks to try to procure nuclear-related materials in violation of last summer's landmark nuclear deal, a top lawmaker told the THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

Will President-elect Donald Trump crash the Iran deal on day one, as he said on the campaign trail? If so, Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy initiative, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), will melt into air. Obama allies and Iran deal supporters at home and abroad are already…

The election of Donald Trump signals bad news for the Iran nuclear deal, Barack Obama's signature foreign policy initiative. Calling it "the worst deal ever negotiated," the author of The Art of the Deal has threatened to tear up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on day one of his presidency.

The election of Donald Trump signals bad news for the Iran nuclear deal, Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy initiative. Calling it "the worst deal ever negotiated," the author of The Art of the Deal has threatened to tear up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on day one of his presidency.

Companies doing business with Iran risk U.S. sanctions unless they take heightened measures to avoid benefiting sanctioned entities like the Iranian military, according to a State Department statement provided to THE WEEKLY STANDARD. The warning contradicts remarks made by Secretary of State John…

Over the weekend the Washington Post published a review of Jay Solomon's book, The Iran Wars, written by New York Times reporter Elaine Sciolino. That one of America's top three remaining newspapers assigned a review of a book written by a reporter from another of the big three (Solomon is a…

The United States will harshly retaliate against any bank or company caught doing business that involves sanctioned Iranian entities, despite a recent announcement from the Treasury Department that had been broadly interpreted as loosening American sanctions against previously prohibited…

The Obama administration has cemented secret exemptions to last summer's nuclear deal that allow Iran to keep a still-unknown amount of uranium above what the deal's caps allow. That's according to top nuclear experts and sources who spoke to THE WEEKLY STANDARD after lawmakers called for greater…

A former top Treasury Department official told THE WEEKLY STANDARD Thursday that major international firms still do not want to do business with Iran, despite efforts by the Obama administration to persuade foreign banks and businesses to reengage there.

The Clinton campaign said Hillary Clinton agrees with vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine's controversial statement Tuesday that the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement eliminated Iran's nuclear program.

The Obama administration did not inform key lawmakers that it had wired millions of dollars to Iran through the formal financial system, even as President Obama and other administration officials publicly defended using cash for a controversial $1.7 billion payment to Iran by saying that wiring…

President Obama and his defenders are trumpeting the new aid agreement with Israel as proof that he is the best friend Israel ever had in the White House. In fact, it's a bad deal and should be treated the same way Obama treated prior agreements he didn't like: It should be forgotten by the next…

Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said Monday that the Obama administration had been "completely transparent" about a purchase of nuclear-related material from Iran in April, after the government confirmed this weekend that the purchase had been made by wire.

President Obama and his defenders are trumpeting the new aid agreement with Israel as proof that he is the best friend Israel ever had in the White House. In fact, it’s a bad deal and should be treated the same way Obama treated prior agreements he didn't like: It should be forgotten by the next…

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with reporters Alice B. Lloyd and Jenna Lifhits on the justifications by Senate Democrats for blocking Zika aid and explaining away the Iranian ransom payment.

The Obama administration may have facilitated several cash payments to Iran even before its controversial $1.7 billion transfer to the country, potentially putting even more liquid money in the hands of nefarious actors backed by the Islamic Republic, according to testimony presented Thursday at a…

The United States paid Iran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year, most of which was taxpayer money, around the same time that the Islamic Republic released several American prisoners, as first reported by the Associated Press.

Jay Solomon, one of America's top national security journalists, has covered Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Over the last few years, he has focused especially on Iran, its larger regional project, and U.S.-Iran relations, including the deal over the regime's nuclear program, also known as the…

In an op-ed at the Atlantic Council, former ambassador Frederic C. Hof condemns President Barack Obama's "passivity" during the bloody conflict in Syria, both on the battlefield and before the public eye, for the sake of preserving the Iran nuclear deal.

A top aide to President Obama forgave Iran's deployment of an advanced missile defense system around one of its nuclear facilities on Monday.

In an article Monday in the New York Sun, Claudia Rosett may have found one of the missing links in the Obama administration's Iran ransom story.

The Obama administration is refusing to provide documents to lawmakers seeking details about a controversial $400 million cash payment the U.S. made to Iran in January, according to exchanges viewed exclusively by THE WEEKLY STANDARD and congressional sources.

The State Department admitted Thursday that a controversial $400 million payment the United States made to Iran in January was used as "leverage" in the release of American hostages.

The U.S. delayed delivering a controversial $400 million payment to Iran until American hostages held there were "wheels up," the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Less than two months after Iran received $400 million in foreign currency in January, the world's top state sponsor of terror acquired another $1.3 billion in cash from the United States, based on statements of U.S. government officials.

Lawmakers are burying the Obama administration with requests for information about a $400 million payment to Iran last January, despite administration attempts to stonewall the public on details of the payment.

A veteran American diplomat who was quietly paid by Boeing while pushing for the Iran nuclear deal—which paved the way for the aerospace giant to ink a $25 billion sale with Iran—is rejecting accusations that he hid a financial motive while pushing for the accord.

A day after the deal with Iran over its nuclear program was implemented in January, the Obama administration paid $1.7 billion to Iran to settle an old Iranian claim (unfinished business from the 1970s). At the same time, the Islamic Republic released four Americans it held in prison. The timing…

A chorus of Republican lawmakers condemned the Obama administration Wednesday for secretly sending Iran $400 million in what critics called a ransom payment.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the transfer of $400 million in cash for Iran in January coincided with not only the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal but with the release of American detainees as well. The cash came not from sanctions relief, but from the settlement of a…

The State Department is still refusing to discuss the details of a covert payment worth $400 million to Iran that coincided with the release of four American hostages from Iran in January.

Philadelphia

The Obama administration has sanctioned three senior al-Qaeda members operating in Iran just weeks after dismissing reports of cooperation between the global terror organization and the Islamic Republic, deepening criticism from experts and lawmakers that the administration is seeking to downplay…

A preeminent Israeli missile expert criticized the Obama administration for weaknesses in the Iran nuclear deal signed last summer, telling THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the agreement allows Iran to explain away its attempts to procure missiles with nuclear capabilities.

Thursday marks the one year anniversary of the Iran nuclear deal with China, Russia, Germany, France, Great Britain, and the United States. The deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has been controversial since its inception. Critics say that the deal gives Iran far too…

Boeing executives are mischaracterizing Congressional efforts to block a controversial $25 billion aircraft sale to Iran, according to lawmakers who spoke to THE WEEKLY STANDARD about statements by executives from the aerospace company.

The Obama administration did not brief top lawmakers about key details of an $8.6 million purchase of nuclear material from Iran for months after announcing the sale in April, according to interviews with multiple members of Congress.

The Iran government tried to obtain nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons technology from German companies, according to a new report from the Jerusalem Post. Here's Benjamin Weinthal, a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, reporting from Berlin for the Post:

July 14 marks a year since President Barack Obama announced an unsigned agreement with Iran on its nuclear program, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), perhaps the most important diplomatic event in recent memory. A majority of Congress and Americans opposed it; Obama considers it his…

Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress are pushing for legislation that would prevent a multi-billion dollar deal between Boeing and Iran Air from being funded with taxpayer dollars. The Republican-led proposal is getting Democratic support.

The Obama administration is poised to remove sanctions on Iran as soon as January, after the United Nations's nuclear regulatory body—the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—released a report concluding the country had pursued a nuclear weapons program until 2009, but had not done so since…

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York is the highest-ranking Democrat to oppose President Obama's executive agreement with Iran over the Islamic republic's nuclear program. But during the Senate Democratic leadership's final press conference prior to a vote on the deal, Schumer didn't say anything…

As the 90 degree sun beat down on a thousand or two activists on the west front of the Capitol Wednesday, a carnival of varied speakers lined up to cheer up the faithful. Initially, there were supposed to be about 25 speakers. The real total was much closer to 50.

Most church groups and prominent religious voices speaking to the Iran nuclear deal are supportive. Most notable among them is the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops. 

How might the United States end up in a boots-on-the-ground shooting war with Iran? 

War, President Obama says, is the only alternative to his deal with Iran. But if the president’s overriding goal is to avoid bloody conflict, why is he arming the Middle East for a shootout that may lead to Armageddon?

President Obama claims, as Bill Kristol noted in his editorial in the latest issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, that no country in the world has expressed opposition to his deal with Iran, with the exception of Israel. But that's not accurate. Canada, the United States' biggest trading partner—and,…

Secure America Now, a group opposed to President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, released a new poll this morning.

Global Zero, a group dedicated to the total eliminiation of nuclear weapons worldwide, has a new video out in support of President Obama's Iran nuclear deal.

President Obama’s deal with Iran is not even called an “agreement.” Technically, it’s a “joint comprehensive plan of action,” a mushy term adopted precisely to avoid the implication that it’s a formally binding agreement. In truth, it’s more like the sort of coordinated “plan of action” that…

As part of their attempt to sell the Iran deal as something other than a catastrophe for American and international peace and security, President Obama and John Kerry are now invoking the United Nations. The Obama administration raced straight from Vienna to the Security Council, awaiting nothing…

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday that the release of four Americans being held in Iran should not be part of a deal with the Islamic Republic. 

In his recent interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sharply criticized the way the Obama administration has been negotiating the forthcoming nuclear deal with Iran.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on the week that was in Washington and around the world.

As the negotiations over a nuclear deal with Iran drag on in Vienna, the Boston Globe's Matt Viser provides an inside look at how the United States delegation spends its time as the top diplomats confer. Among the details about snacks and American officials falling asleep is a nugget about the U.S.…

John Forbes Kerry is the 68th secretary of state of the United States of America. If you’re ever tempted to ponder American decline, or for that matter the decline of the West, you might pause to reflect that John Kerry was preceded in his august office by, among others, Thomas Jefferson, James…

Is President Barack Obama right that the so-called framework nuclear agreement with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) announced on April 2, will “cut off every pathway Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon”? Some will assess the truth of his statement by crunching the…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with executive editor Fred Barnes on the Iran nuclear deal, the Americans held by Iran as hostages, and whether the hostages and their families will recieve compensation from the government of Iran.