The United States agreed Thursday to continue for now to exempt Iran from nuclear-related sanctions but slapped new measures on targets accused of cyber attacks or destabilizing the region.

The decision to continue to waive the sanctions was expected, but the new sanctions and some tough words from President Donald Trump will be seen as a victory for opponents of the Iran nuclear deal.

Trump is due to decide before October 15 whether Iran has breached the 2015 nuclear agreement, and critics fear he may abandon an accord they think prevents Tehran from building a nuclear bomb.

"You'll see what I'm going to be doing very shortly in October," Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One. "The Iran deal is one of the worst deals I've ever seen.

"Certainly at a minimum the spirit of the deal is atrociously kept. The Iran deal is not a fair deal to this country. It's a deal that should not have ever been made."

Policy hawks welcomed the US Treasury's announcement of new sanctions on non-nuclear issues, and officials were at pains to show they had waived nuclear sanctions only grudgingly.

"The administration did approve waivers in order to maintain some flexibility," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the waiver "a holding action."

"This is the action that the US is taking in the interim," he said, "while the president and his cabinet come to a final decision in consultation among themselves and in consultation with allies."

The 2015 Iran deal, approved by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, was implemented under a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, and enshrined in UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

Under the JCPOA, Iran surrendered much of its enriched uranium, dismantled a reactor and submitted nuclear sites to UN inspection, while Washington and Europe lifted some sanctions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that Iran has lived up to the terms of the nuclear agreement, but Washington and its allies have been angered by Tehran's other actions.

Tehran continues to develop and test ballistic missile technology banned under previous UN resolutions, and its Revolutionary Guard Corps supports militias in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.

- Iranian threats -

Trump has declared the deal a disaster and there are growing signs that next month he may declare that he thinks Iran has broken its promises -- opening the way to new US sanctions.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking in London, said Trump would "take into account the totality of Iranian threats, not just Iran's nuclear capabilities."

He argued that the JCPOA expects the signatories to "positively contribute to regional and international peace and security.

"In our view, Iran is clearly in default of these expectations," he added speaking alongside British foreign secretary Boris Johnson.

Tillerson noted that Iran continues to support Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime in Syria, to develop ballistic missiles and to carry out cyber attacks -- threatening Middle East security.

But Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, insisted that Tehran would not be bullied into renegotiating the JCPOA, tweeting: "A 'better' deal is pure fantasy. About time for US to stop spinning and begin complying, just like Iran."

In Washington, some observers welcomed Trump's tough talk.

Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which has long criticized the Iran accord, has dubbed the approach of keeping the deal's relief while imposing new measures "waive-and-slap."

"It is the first step in a process under which the contours of the administration's pressure campaign will come into sharper relief."

But the former Obama administration officials who negotiated the deal issued a stark warning that if Trump declares Iran to be in violation of the deal it could collapse.

This could alienate the powers that co-signed the accord -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- and allow Iran to quickly resume the quest for a viable nuclear weapon.

And this would undermine America's credibility as it attempts to cajole North Korea into giving up its own nuclear arsenal.

- 'Train wreck' -

Former senior White House official Colin Kahl said Iran could have enough enriched fuel for a bomb within a year of the deal collapsing, dubbing the Trump policy a "train wreck."

"You won't have a diplomatic option because in the event that we get blamed for blowing up the deal we won't be able to reconstitute international consensus," he said.

"And as the guy who used to have oversight for war plans against Iran in the Obama administration, I can tell you that there's no military option that buys you a fraction of the time that this deal does, or a fraction of constraints.

"So it puts the United States in a terrible position of an almost inevitable march to war at great distraction from every other challenge we face, to include North Korea but also China and Russia, and everything else. It's just completely unnecessary."

Th US Treasury imposed economic sanctions on 11 individuals and companies accused of supporting Iran's Revolutionary Guards or engaging in cyber attacks against US banks.

These targeted an engineering company, two air transport firms and an IT company accused of carrying out denial-of-service attacks on at least nine American financial institutions.

US, Iran set for first meeting on nuclear deal at UN: diplomats
United Nations, United States (AFP) Sept 14, 2017 - US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to hold a first meeting on the Iran nuclear deal with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and other parties to the agreement next week at the United Nations, diplomats said Thursday.

The meeting next Wednesday of the so-called E3+3 (Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United States) and Iran comes as President Donald Trump is weighing whether to quit the historic 2015 agreement.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini will chair the talks, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting, diplomats said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected to touch on the fate of the nuclear deal in his UN address on Wednesday, a day after Trump will deliver his first speech to the 193-nation assembly.

The US on Thursday waived nuclear-related sanctions on Iran but slapped new ones on 11 companies and individuals accused of engaging in cyber attacks against US banks.

Trump is due to decide before October 15 whether Iran has breached the 2015 nuclear agreement, and critics fear he may abandon an accord they think prevents Tehran from building a nuclear bomb.

Under the nuclear deal, Iran surrendered much of its enriched uranium, dismantled a reactor and submitted nuclear sites to UN inspection, while Washington and Europe lifted some sanctions.

On a visit to the United States in July, Zarif complained that he had yet to discuss the agreement with Tillerson and that the administration was sending "contradictory signals" about the fate of the landmark agreement.

"There are no communications between myself and Secretary Tillerson," Zarif said.

"It doesn't mean there can't be. The possibilities for engagement... have always been open."

US Treasury announces new Iran sanctions
Washington (AFP) Sept 14, 2017 - The United States on Thursday imposed economic sanctions on 11 individuals and companies accused of supporting Iran's Revolutionary Guards or engaging in hostile cyber-attacks on US banks, the Treasury Department announced.

The move to toughen sanctions for Iran's alleged destabilization of the Middle East contrasted with an expected decision by the White House to continue to exempt Iran from sanctions imposed on its nuclear program which America undertook to remove as its part of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

Trump's administration has criticized this deal, negotiated by the prior Obama administration, but has so far continued to waive the nuclear-related sanctions.

The new sanctions announced Thursday targeted an engineering company, two air transport firms and an IT company accused of carrying out denial-of-service attacks on at least nine American financial institutions, including major banks and stock exchanges between 2011 and 2012.

"Treasury will continue to take strong actions to counter Iran's provocations, including support for the IRGC-Qods Force and terrorist extremists, the ongoing campaign of violence in Syria, and cyber-attacks meant to destabilize the US financial system," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, senior administration officials told reporters on Thursday the US was pursuing sanctions on Iran in areas beyond its nuclear program but that the Trump administration would hold Tehran to its obligations under the 2015 agreement.

The sanctions effectively freeze their targets out of much of the global financial system and block them from accessing assets within the United States.

The alleged cyber-attacks occurred between December 2011 and December 2012, according to the Treasury Department, which said the company in question, ITSec Team, was working at the time for the Revolutionary Guards, which has been under US sanctions since 2007.

Other firms designated by the Treasury included the Sadid Caran Saba Engineering Company, which Treasury said had been under contract since as early as 2014 to install explosion-proof crane systems for the Guards' Research and Self-Sufficiency Jehad Organization, which develops ballistic missiles for Iran and is already subject to US sanctions.

The Khors Aircompany, based in Ukraine, and Dart Airlines were also designated by the Treasury for allegedly helping provide US aircraft, as well as crew and services to Iran's Caspian Air and Iraq's Al-Naser Airlines, companies that are themselves already under US sanctions for supporting the Revolutionary Guards.

Additionally, the Treasury Department named seven Iranian nationals currently under indictment by a federal grand jury in New York for their alleged roles in the ITSec attacks.

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Cancel Iran nuclear deal, Netanyahu says in Argentina
Buenos Aires (AFP) Sept 13, 2017
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran should be amended or canceled. Speaking in Buenos Aires alongside Argentine President Mauricio Macri, Netanyahu said he wanted to correct the impression in recent media reports that Israel's position on the 2015 deal had softened. "So let me take this opportunity and clarify. Our p ... read more

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