US President Barack Obama’s decision to extend the national emergency against Iran is part of broader efforts to keep his successor Donald Trump from changing the geopolitical dynamics in the Middle East, says an American political analyst.
On Friday, Obama said the national emergency, which was declared on March 15, 1995, would “continue in effect beyond March 15, 2017.”
The outgoing president claimed that despite being fully committed to the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran still posed “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States.
“There is no justification for the outgoing president to keep sanctions on Iran in place and tensions between the two at such high levels,” Myles Hoenig, a Green Party candidate for Congress, told Press TV on Saturday.
“If all countries that adhere to the JCPOA agree that the Iranian government is living up to its agreement, then it only shows…