US Extends 27-Year Iran ‘Emergency’ Giving President Sweeping Powers
United States President Joe Biden Friday extended for a year a 1995 executive order declaring a “national emergency” with regard to “the government of Iran.”
United States President Joe Biden Friday extended for a year a 1995 executive order declaring a “national emergency” with regard to “the government of Iran.”
The ‘emergency’ gives the president powers to circumvent usual judicial and administrative procedures, including imposing sanctions and seizing assets. A similar order was used in February to impound Afghanistan’s $7 billion foreign reserves.
Biden specifically extended Executive Order 12957, declared by President Bill Clinton March 15, 1995, which was aimed originally at stopping a deal between Iran and Conoco. On May 6, 1995, Clinton issued another executive order, imposing wider sanctions on Iran, and the ‘emergency’ has been maintained ever since.
The White House statement Friday referred to the “actions and policies of the Government of Iran — including its proliferation and development of missiles and other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities, its network and campaign of regional aggression, its support for terrorist groups, and the malign activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its surrogates.”
The statement, signed by Biden, claimed Iran continued “to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”
The renewal of the ‘national emergency’ might sour but will not stop efforts in Vienna to renew the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The US ‘emergency’ was in place throughout previous negotiations leading to the deal in 2015.
