WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Congress took no action before a deadline on reimposing sanctions on Iran on Wednesday, leaving the landmark deal intact and letting U.S. President Donald Trump make a decision in January.
On Oct. 13, Trump announced that he had decided to decertify Iran's compliance with the Iran nuclear deal reached in 2015, a move that did not pull the United States out of the deal but triggered a 60-day window for Congress to decide whether to reimpose nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, even it means violating the deal on the U.S. side.
In the past two months, Congress did not come up with any resolution to reimpose sanctions.
With no action from Congress, the ball was passed back to Trump, who should decide in mid-January if he would like to waive energy sanctions on Iran.
According to the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INRA) passed by U.S. Congress in 2015, the Trump administration is required to recertify to Congress Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal every 90 days.
"There was actually no deadline to act by this week, as the administration did not ask that Congress introduce legislation to re-impose JCPOA-related sanctions," claimed the White House Press Secretary Sandra Sanders at a Tuesday briefing, citing the deal by its formal title, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The Trump administration also expressed its intention to wait for another month before the president decides.
"I believe the next deadline comes up in January, so I don't think that we would do anything prior to the deadline," U.S. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said at a daily briefing on Wednesday.
The nuclear deal was reached between Iran and the six world powers of Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany in July 2015. So far, the deal has helped defuse the Iran nuclear crisis and bolstered the international non-proliferation regime.
During his speech in October, Trump blamed Iran for committing "multiple violations of the agreement" and "not living up to the spirit of the deal."
The International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN watchdog tasked to monitor Iran's nuclear activities, has certified eight times Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal.
