Pakistan analyst terms ISA extension as counterproductive

Islamabad, Dec 3, IRNA - A senior Pakistani analyst strongly believes that a recent move by the US to extend anti-Iran sanctions is counterproductive and violates the trust that had developed between Iran and the West by the nuclear arrangement. In an interview with IRNA, Hasan Askari Rizvi, Professor of political science at University of Punjab said the legislation doesn’t make any sense and will only increase opposition in Iran against the nuclear arrangement. He said this is very surprising that the US Congress has extended restrictions or sanctions against Iran at a time when Iran has already agreed to the international community’s arrangement on its peaceful nuclear process. “US was part of that dialog process. Therefore, this legislation doesn’t make any sense and will adversely affect the Iran-US relations and increase opposition in Iran against the nuclear arrangement,” he said. Rizvi, expressing his views said that despite the counterproductive steps by the US, the nuclear deal signed between Tehran and the world six major powers in 2015, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will continue because it is a multilateral arrangement, although it can force Iran to take new decisions and even leave the deal, a move which will not be helpful for any of the JCPOA signatories. The US Senate on December 1st unanimously (99 to 0) voted for extension of the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for another 10 years. The US House of Representatives had earlier voted for the ISA extension 419 to 1. ISA, a law initially adopted in 1996 by the US on the baseless allegation that Iran peaceful nuclear energy program is of non-civilian in nature, was to be expired by the end of 2016. To become an anti-Iran Act for another decade, the US Senate’s approval now needs to be signed into law by the US President Barack Obama. Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei had already made it clear that extension of the ISA would be considered as JCPOA violation if implemented. 1378/IRNA