On Wednesday, October 4, Representatives Ted Deutch (D-FL) and David Price (D-NC) sent a letter to President Trump signed by over 180 Members of Congress, including the entire House Democratic Leadership, urging the President to recertify Iran’s compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Announced in July of 2015, the JCPOA is an international agreement negotiated by the “P5+1” (United States, China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and Germany), the European Union, and Iran that sought to cut off Iran’s path to nuclear weapons capability.

The letter comes in response to recent suggestions by President Trump that the administration may withhold certification of Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA, which must be re-certified every three months under the terms of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA). INARA also requires the President to provide Congress with credible evidence of Iranian noncompliance, should violations of the JCPOA occur. No such evidence has been provided to Congress to-date, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, U.S. military and intelligence officials, and U.S. allies have indicated that Iran remains in technical compliance with the agreement.

“We forced Iran to the negotiating table in the first place because of the multilateral sanctions imposed on Iran by the U.S. and our global partners,” said Congressman Deutch. “Now, we need the help of this international coalition to keep up the pressure on Iran for its other malign activities outside of the JCPOA – its support for terrorism, its gross human rights violations, and its ballistic missile weapons program. If President Trump decertifies Iranian compliance without clear evidence of Iranian violations, it will jeopardize this united front against Iran. The JCPOA is an imperfect agreement, but to address the problematic provisions including the sunset clauses, we will need stay in lockstep with our global partners.”

“For more than two years, the JCPOA has realized its objective of constraining Iran’s nuclear program to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran,” said Congressman Price. “Without ironclad evidence of Iranian violations of the agreement, withholding Iran’s certification of JCPOA compliance would jeopardize our national security, harm our international relationships, and embolden Iran. We urge the President to heed the advice of his military and intelligence advisors rather than play politics with national security.”

In the letter, the Representatives emphasize that withholding certification without credible evidence of a material breach on the part of Iran would threaten national security, isolate the U.S. from our international partners and allies, and undermine efforts to defuse the nuclear crisis with North Korea. “Absent credible and accurate information confirming a material breach, we are concerned that withholding certification of Iran’s compliance or walking away from the JCPOA would harm our alliances, embolden Iran, and threaten U.S. national security. We are further concerned that non-certification based on justifications beyond the scope of the nuclear agreement would threaten global non-proliferation efforts and send exactly the wrong message to North Korea at the moment we are trying to diplomatically defuse that crisis.”

The full text of the letter can be viewed here. 
 
Signatories include the following Members of the U.S. House of Representatives: 

Adams, Alma 
Aguilar, Pete 
Barragan, Nanette Diaz 
Bass, Karen 
Beatty, Joyce 
Bera, Ami
Beyer Jr., Donald S.
Bishop, Jr., Sanford D. 
Blumenauer, Earl
Blunt Rochester, Lisa 
Bonamici, Suzanne 
Bordallo, Madeleine Z. 
Brady, Robert 
Brown, Anthony 
Brownley, Julia 
Bustos, Cheri 
Butterfield, G.K.
Capuano, Michael E. 
Carbajal, Salud O. 
Cárdenas, Tony
Carson, Andre 
Cartwright, Matt 
Castor, Kathy 
Castro, Joaquin 
Chu, Judy 
Cicilline, David N. 
Clark, Katherine 
Clarke, Yvette D. 
Clay, William Lacy
Cleaver, II., Emanuel 
Clyburn, James E. 
Cohen, Steve 
Coleman, Bonnie Watson 
Connolly, Gerald E. 
Conyers, Jr., John 
Cooper, Jim 
Costa, Jim 
Courtney, Joe 
Crist, Charlie 
Crowley, Joseph 
Cuellar, Henry 
Cummings, Elijah E.
Davis, Danny K. 
Davis, Susan 
DeFazio, Peter A. 
DeGette, Diana 
Delaney, John K. 
DeLauro, Rosa L. 
DelBene, Suzan 
Demings, Val 
DeSaulnier, Mark 
Deutch, Ted 
Dingell, Debbie 
Doggett, Lloyd 
Doyle, Mike 
Ellison, Keith 
Engel, Eliot L.
Eshoo, Anna G. 
Espaillat, Adriano 
Esty, Elizabeth
Evans, Dwight
Foster, Bill 
Frankel, Lois 
Fudge, Marcia L. 
Gabbard, Tulsi 
Gallego, Ruben 
Garamendi, John 
Gomez, Jimmy
Green, Al 
Green, Gene 
Grijalva, Raul M. 
Gutiérrez, Luis V. 
Hanabusa, Colleen 
Hastings, Alcee L. 
Heck, Denny 
Higgins, Brian 
Himes, Jim 
Hoyer, Steny H. 
Huffman, Jared 
Jackson Lee, Sheila 
Jayapal, Pramila 
Jeffries, Hakeem 
Johnson, Eddie Bernice 
Johnson, Hank 
Kaptur, Marcy 
Keating, William R. 
Kelly, Robin L. 
Kennedy, III, Joseph P. 
Khanna, Ro 
Kihuen, Ruben J. 
Kildee, Dan
Kilmer, Derek 
Krishnamoorthi, Raja 
Kuster, Ann McLane 
Langevin, Jim 
Larsen, Rick
Larson, John 
Lawrence, Brenda 
Lawson, Alfred 
Lee, Barbara
Levin, Sander 
Lewis, John 
Lieu, Ted W. 
Loebsack, Dave 
Lofgren, Zoe 
Lowenthal, Alan 
Lowey, Nita 
Lujan Grisham, Michelle 
Luján, Ben Ray 
Lynch, Stephen F. 
Maloney, Carolyn B. 
Maloney, Sean Patrick 
Matsui, Doris
McCollum, Betty 
McEachin, A. Donald 
McGovern, James P.
McNerney, Jerry 
Meeks, Gregory W. 
Meng, Grace
Moore, Gwen 
Moulton, Seth 
Nadler, Jerrold 
Neal, Richard 
Nolan, Rick 
Norcross, Donald 
Norton, Eleanor Holmes 
O’Rourke, Beto 
Pallone Jr., Frank
Panetta, Jimmy 
Pascrell Jr., Bill 
Payne Jr., Donald 
Pelosi, Nancy 
Perlmutter, Ed 
Peters, Scott H. 
Pingree, Chellie 
Plaskett, Stacey 
Pocan, Mark 
Polis, Jared 
Price, David E. 
Quigley, Mike 
Raskin, Jamie 
Rice, Kathleen 
Richmond, Cedric 
Rosen, Jacky 
Roybal-Allard, Lucille 
Ruiz, Raul 
Ruppersberger, Dutch
Rush, Bobby L.
Ryan, Tim 
Sablan, Gregorio Kilili Camacho
Sánchez, Linda T. 
Sarbanes, John 
Schakowsky, Jan 
Schiff, Adam
Schrader, Kurt 
Scott, David 
Scott, Robert C. "Bobby" 
Serrano, José E. 
Sewell, Terri 
Shea-Porter, Carol 
Sires, Albio 
Slaughter, Louise M. 
Smith, Smith 
Soto, Darren 
Speier, Jackie 
Suozzi, Thomas R. 
Swalwell, Eric
Takano, Mark 
Thompson, Bennie G. 
Thompson, Mike 
Titus, Dina 
Tonko, Paul D. 
Torres, Norma J. 
Tsongas, Niki 
Veasey, Marc 
Velázquez, Nydia 
Visclosky, Peter J. 
Walz, Tim 
Wasserman Schultz, Debbie 
Welch, Peter 
Wilson, Frederica S.
Yarmuth, John