Like with DACA, Trump may leave Iran nuclear deal’s fate to Congress

An emerging pattern in the Trump administration is to declare opposition to an Obama executive action but then leave the actual work of dealing with the consequences of that decision to Congress. That’s what President Trump did Tuesday with immigration, and it’s what U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Tuesday might happen with the Iran nuclear deal.

Haley, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, laid out a detailed argument for why Trump would be on safe ground if he decides not to certify that Iran is in compliance with the accord limiting its nuclear activity when the decision comes to his desk again next month. Haley is not advocating he decertify Iran’s compliance, she said, but her one-hour presentation clearly laid out grounds for defending such an action.

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Experts are already debating what Congress should do if Trump declines to certify Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal. One approach, advocated by Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security, argues Congress should drastically increase nonnuclear sanctions on Iran but stop short of reimposing the sanctions that would blow up the deal.

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