The Trump administration may not have legal standing to again waive US sanctions on Iranian oil, this time as part of last week’s agreement — but it probably won’t matter.
The Obama-era Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which requires presidents to submit agreements related to Iran’s nuclear program to Congress for approval, temporarily bars the president from waiving sanctions while lawmakers review.
President Donald Trump’s Office of Legal Counsel has drafted a memo, however, that has officials “quite confident that we can temporarily lift those sanctions without going to Congress,” Vice President JD Vance said.
They probably lack the authority to do so, per Harvard Law School’s Jack Goldsmith — but any lawsuit challenging them is “likely to fail,” given few would have standing to do so, he wrote.
Regardless, “we’re a long way away from full unwinding [of sanctions] and US companies entering the Iranian market,” Capitol Peak Strategies’ Alex Zerden, a former Treasury Department official, said. “The legal and technical changes are highly complex and still require private-sector buy-in.”