President Trump notified Congress Monday that he was extending the national emergency with Iran that has been in place since the 1979 hostage crisis, saying relations with the Islamic regime have not normalized.
Previous presidents routinely extended the national emergency, which otherwise expires on the Nov. 14 anniversary of the original declaration. But for Mr. Trump, the notice underscores his administration’s tense relation with Iran.
“Our relations with Iran have not yet normalized, and the process of implementing the agreements with Iran, dated January 19, 1981, is ongoing,” Mr. Trump wrote Congress in the formal notice.
The 1981 agreement with Iran arranged for the release of 53 American hostages taken at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 when Islamic militants overthrew the government.
Last month, Mr. Trump decertified the Iran nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration, leaving it to Congress to decide whether to reimpose sanctions.
The administration also slapped separate sanctions on the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, designating it as a terrorist organization.
International monitors said that Iran was meeting the conditions of the agreement to suspend its nuclear weapon program. Mr. Trump said Iran was not living up to the spirit of the deal and continued to back terrorism and act to destabilize the Middle East.
Iran ranks as the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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