US – President continues national emergency with respect to Iran

On March 10, 2016, the Federal Register published Presidential Notice of March 9, 2016—Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to Iran, which continues for an additional year, the national emergency first declared on March 15, 1995 in Executive Order (EO) 12957 to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the actions and policies of the Government of Iran.  Subsequently, the President issued EO 12959 (May 6, 1995) imposing compressive sanctions, EO 13059 (Aug. 19, 1997) consolidating and clarifying the previous orders, EO 13553 (Sept. 28, 2010), EO 13574 (May 23, 2011), EO 13590 (Nov. 20, 2011), EO 13599 (Feb. 5, 2012), EO 13606 (Apr. 22, 2012), EO 13608 (May 1, 2012), EO 13622 (July 30, 2012), EO 13628 (Oct. 9, 2012) and EO 13645 (June 3, 2013), which involved additional steps.

On July 14, 2015, the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), the European Union, and Iran reached a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is and will remain exclusively peaceful. January 16, 2016, marked Implementation Day under the JCPOA, when the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report verifying that Iran had completed key nuclear-related steps as specified in the JCPOA, and the Secretary of State confirmed the report’s findings. As a result, the United States lifted nuclear-related sanctions on Iran consistent with its commitments under the JCPOA, including the termination of a number of Executive Orders that were issued pursuant to this national emergency. Though the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions constitutes a significant change in our sanctions posture, non-nuclear related sanctions remain in place.

The national emergency is being extended because, despite the historic deal to ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program, certain actions and policies of the Government of Iran continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.