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Iran's Nuke Deal; New Sanctions; Sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary Guard; Decertifying Iran Deal; Treasury Releases Sanctions. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 13, 2017 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The nuclear deal threw Iran's dictatorship a political and economic lifeline, providing urgently needed relief from the intense domestic pressure the sanctions had created.

It also gave the regime an immediate financial boost and over $100 billion its government could use to fund terrorism. The regime also received a massive cash settlement of $1.7 billion from the United States, a large portion of which was physically loaded onto an airplane and flown into Iran.

Just imagine the sight of those huge piles of money being hauled off by the Iranians waiting at the airport for the cash. I wonder where all that money went.

Worst of all, the deal allows Iran to continue developing certain elements of its nuclear program and, importantly, in just a few years, as key restrictions disappear, Iran can sprint towards a rapid nuclear weapons breakout.

In other words, we got weak inspections in exchange for no more than a purely short-term and temporary delay in Iran's path to nuclear weapons.

What is the purpose of a deal that at best only delays Iran's nuclear capability for a short period of time? This, as president of the United States, is unacceptable. In other countries, they think in terms of 100-year intervals, not just a few years at a time.

The saddest part of the deal for the United States is that all of the money was paid up front, which is unheard of, rather than at the end of the deal, when they have shown they've played the rules. But what's done is done, and that's why we are where we are.

The Iranian regime has committed multiple violations of the agreement. For example, on two separate occasions, they have exceeded the limit of 130 metric tons of heavy water. Until recently, the Iranian regime has also failed to meet our expectations in its operation of advanced centrifuges.

The Iranian regime has also intimidated international inspectors into not using the full inspection authorities that the agreement calls for. Iranian officials and military leaders have repeatedly claimed they will not allow inspectors onto military sites, even though the international community suspects some of those sites were part of Iran's clandestine nuclear program.

TRUMP: There are also many people who believe that Iran is dealing with North Korea.

I am going to instruct our intelligence agencies to do a thorough analysis and report back their findings beyond what they have already reviewed.

By its own terms, the Iran deal was supposed to contribute to regional and international peace and security. And yet, while the United States adheres to our commitment under the deal, the Iranian regime continues to fuel conflict, terror and turmoil throughout the Middle East and beyond.

Importantly, Iran is not living up to the spirit of the deal. So today, in recognition of the increasing menace posed by Iran, and after extensive consultations with our allies, I am announcing a new strategy to address the full range of Iran's destructive actions.

First, we will work with our allies to counter the regime's destabilizing activity and support for terrorist proxies in the region.

Second, we will place additional sanctions on the regime to block their financing of terror.

Third, we will address the regime's proliferation of missiles and weapons that threaten its neighbors' global trade and freedom of navigation.

And finally, we will deny the regime all paths to a nuclear weapon.

Today, I'm announcing several major steps my administration is taking in pursuit of this strategy.

The execution of our strategy begins with the long-overdue step of imposing tough sanctions on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Revolutionary Guard is the Iranian supreme leader's corrupt personal terror force and militia. It has hijacked large portions of Iran's economy and seized massive religious endowments to fund war and terror abroad. This includes arming the Syrian dictator, supplying proxies and partners with missiles and weapons to attack civilians in the region, and even plotting to bomb a popular restaurant right here in Washington, D.C.

I am authorizing the Treasury Department to further sanction the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for its support for terrorism, and to apply sanctions to its officials, agents and affiliates.

I urge our allies to join us in taking strong actions to curb Iran's continued dangerous and destabilizing behavior, including thorough sanctions outside the Iran deal that target the regime's ballistic missile program and support for terrorism and all of its destructive activities, of which there are many. Finally, on the grave matter of Iran's nuclear program, since the signing of the nuclear agreement, the regime's dangerous aggression has only escalated. At the same time, it has received massive sanctions relief while continuing to develop its missiles program. Iran has also entered into lucrative business contracts with other parties to the agreement.

TRUMP: When the agreement was finalized in 2015, Congress passed the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act to ensure that Congress' voice would be heard on the deal. Among other conditions, this law requires the president or his designee to certify that the suspension of sanctions under the deal is appropriate and proportionate to measure -- and other measures taken by Iran to terminate its illicit nuclear program.

Based on the factual record I have put forward, I am announcing today that we cannot and will not make this certification. We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of Iran's nuclear breakout.

That is why I am directing my administration to work closely with Congress and our allies to address the deal's many serious flaws so that the Iranian regime can never threaten the world with nuclear weapons.

These include the deal's sunset clauses that in just a few years will eliminate key restrictions on Iran's nuclear program. The flaws in the deal also include insufficient enforcement and near-total silence on Iran's missile programs.

Congress has already begun the work to address these problems. Key House and Senate leaders are drafting legislation that would amend the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act to strengthen enforcement, prevent Iran from developing an internet -- this is so totally important -- an intercontinental ballistic missile, and make all restrictions on Iran's nuclear activity permanent under U.S. law. So important.

I support these initiatives. However, in the event we are not able to reach a solution, working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated. It is under continuous review, and our participation can be canceled by me, as president, at any time.

As we have seen in North Korea, the longer we ignore a threat, the worse that threat becomes. It is why we are determined that the world's leading sponsor of terrorism will never obtain nuclear weapons.

In this effort, we stand in total solidarity with the Iranian regime's longest suffering victims, its own people. The citizens of Iran have paid a heavy price for the violence and extremism of their leaders. The Iranian people long to -- and they just are longing -- to reclaim their country's proud history, its culture, its civilization, its cooperation with its neighbors.

We hope that these new measures directed at the Iranian dictatorship will compel the government to reevaluate its pursuit of terror at the expense of its people. We hope that our actions today will help bring about a future of peace, stability and prosperity in the Middle East, a future where sovereign nations respect each other and their own citizens.

TRUMP: We pray for a future where young children, American and Iranian, Muslim, Christian and Jewish, can grow up in a world free from violence, hatred and terror. And until that blessed day comes, we will do what we must to keep America safe.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America. Thank you.

QUESTION: Mr. President, why don't you just kill the deal?

TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[13:11:45]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The president of the United States -- President Trump announcing that he cannot certify that Iran is, in fact, complying with the nuclear deal. Announcing new steps in effect throwing the ball right now to the U.S. Congress.

He says Congress and the administration will work closely to address what he calls the flaws of this agreement.

We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.

We've got expert analysis standing by. I want to quickly go to Jim Sciutto, our Chief National Security Correspondent.

Jim, we listened closely to what he said. A very, very tough statement. I thought he went further than all the advanced word was in going after Iran, making it clear he sees this deal, that was negotiated during the Obama administration, with other permanent members of the United Nations' Security Council. He sees this deal as a horrible, horrible deal. The U.S. must get a new deal.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: This is more than a pun (ph). This is, potentially, enormously consequential. The president has, in effect, said, Congress, fix this. So, he's not pulling the U.S. out of the deal today.

But he made very clear, if they do not fix it, to his pleasing, as he's demanding here, the U.S. will walk away from the deal. Similar to what Secretary Tillerson told reporters, including myself last night. Fix it or we're going to nix this deal, in effect.

That is consequential. It is not guaranteed that the president will get through Congress the changes he wants in this deal. New triggers, for instance, new sanctions. That's a question.

For several of those moves, you need 60 votes which means you would need eight Democrats to sign on with Republicans. That's important.

Two, the president alleged here something that has been contradicted by every agency head who's responsible for reviewing this deal, all of his senior advisors. The president said, quote, unquote, "Iran has delivered multiple violations of this agreement." In fact, his defense secretary, his intelligence community, even his secretary of state, again speaking to reporters yesterday and publicly, have all said that Iran is in compliance with this agreement.

Because the fact is this agreement covers only its nuclear program. It doesn't cover missile technology. It does not cover terrorism. You know, you can argue that it should have or you should have fought for that. But the agreement, itself, does not.

And that's why, though the president is decertifying and saying it's violating this agreement, his senior advisers have said publicly and repeatedly, it is not.

The final point I would make is this is that the U.S. is alone on this. The U.S. allies who negotiated this agreement with it, along with China and Russia, have constantly and continued -- continue to declare their public commitment to this deal.

I spoke a short time ago to a European diplomat from a country that was party to this agreement. Said the following to me. That we, along with our E three E.U. partners, have been both publicly and privately expressing our ongoing commitment to the JCPOA, as the deal is known. We would be wary of any developments that undermine the fundamental parameters of this agreement.

So, as the president goes out here on this limb, in effect, he's doing so without the cooperation and the agreement of his closest allies.

BLITZER: And he did announce new sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Core.

SCIUTTO: Exactly.

BLITZER: Which is a huge part of the Iranian regime. That's a significant step.

[13:15:00] SCIUTTO: Absolutely. A big part of the Iranian regime and big part of the Iranian economy. The RTRC has its own -- in effect, its own navy, to some degree. It has its own fighting core. It also has many of its own businesses there. If they're shut out of the U.S. banking system, the international banking system, that has enormous economic consequences to Iran.

BLITZER: You know, Jim Acosta is over at the White House, our senior White House correspondent.

You've been well briefed by officials over there. The president seemed a lot bolder than some of his aides were suggesting he would be.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf, we're getting some mixed messages on this Iran deal and what the president is going to be doing about it. I think we should look back to what Rex Tillerson told reporters in the White House briefing room yesterday. The secretary of state told reporters in the briefing room that yes this policy decision by the president moves the Iran nuclear deal over to Congress, kicks it to Congress, but that -- Wolf, this is what Rex Tillerson told reporters yesterday. If Congress does nothing, the United States remains in the Iran nuclear agreement. I think despite all the president's tough talk today, I think that is still the state of play in Washington when it comes to this Iran nuclear deal.

I -- you know, the president, he made a lot of, you know, very strong statements during the campaign saying it was a catastrophe, the worst deal ever negotiated and so on. And he was really sort of trapped by his own campaign rhetoric in all of this. And from talking to sources over the last several months, you know, we've been -- we've been given the full picture that time and again people like the national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, the defense secretary, James Mattis, they've all tried to go to the president and really try to press on him that, listen, you don't like this Iran nuclear deal. But guess what, if we pull out of it, we're isolated, as Jim Sciutto was saying, by much of the world.

This is not a bilateral agreement between the United States and Iran. There are other parties involved here. And, you know, this may end up being something where the president issues a lot of tough talk today that makes him feel good about all of this. But at the end of the day, Congress, remember, in the Senate, they're going to need 60 votes to deal with whatever Senator Bob Corker comes up with. He's trying to craft some kind of deal over in the Senate that the Congress can act on. But if the Congress does nothing, Wolf, we've been told by administration officials, the Iran deal stays in place.

BLITZER: Until the president decides that it shouldn't stay in place. He can clearly make that decision.

I want to go to Fred Pleitgen, our international correspondent. He's joining us from Tehran right now.

You were listening very carefully, Fred, to what President Trump had to say. How is this likely to be received in Iran, where you are?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I'm already checking for reaction. So far I haven't -- I haven't seen any yet officially on the accounts that the Iranian government, for instance, uses. But, certainly, this is going to lead to some very harsh reactions and already an anticipation of some of the things that the president has said and what the Iranians thought he was going to say. There have been some very harsh reactions already.

And I think one of the things that Jim was alluding to is so very important. On the one hand, the nuclear deal. But then also now these additional terrorism sanctions against the Revolutionary Guard, because this is something where in the past, as the nuclear deal came though, you saw a lot of moderates here in this country, like the president, Hassan Rouhani, even criticize the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp. But now that these threats have come from the administration, all those sides are moving closer together. People in the Rouhani administration are now praising the Revolutionary Guard. So you can see, the moderates and the hardliners, who have been very much at odds, especially after the agreement was put in place, not sort of moving closer together. So I do think that that could be a very significant step, but I'm not really sure that that's going to weaken the Revolutionary Guard Corps' standing here in the country as it is.

And then, of course, the threat of a nuclear agreement being set aside. You know, earlier today, one of our crews was out and spoke to both moderate and hardliners here in Tehran. And the hardliners were saying, look, we told you this all along because the hardliners have been saying that they thought that this was a bad deal for Iran. But to many moderates here in this country have been saying they were looking forward to this deal. They thought it would bring economic relief. And many of them also thought that it could bring Iran closer to the United States. And now clearly that's something where many of them don't believe that that can happen anymore, Wolf.

BLITZER: We're going to get reaction from one of the architects of the Iran nuclear deal momentarily.

But I want to go to Christiane Amanpour, who's joining us from London.

Christiane, you've been to Iran many times. You've studied all of the history, the negotiations leading up to this deal back in 2015. What's your analysis of what we heard from the president?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, clearly it was a very broad brush stroke painting Iran as the Satan that President Trump believes that it is. And went all the way back to 1979. I mean it was a long way to go back. And omitted some very important things. Because the reality of this is that this deal was struck by Iran with the United States, the Europeans, Russia and China. And all of them, including the only agency qualified to do so, which is the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear agency, has testified over and again that it is verifying this deal, that Iran is in compliance with it. And if the deal breaks up, there is no more verification, there's no more transparency into the Iranian program. So I think that's very important.

[13:20:24] The president and the United States, frankly, always had sanctions against the IRGC. It's always had sanctions on Iran for terrorist allegations. So those already exist.

And I think it's very important to remember that even Israeli hawks, such as the former prime minister and defense minister, Ehud Barak, have told me, and did so yesterday expecting this speech today, that the deal is done. It is not a perfect deal. We may not like it, they say, but the deal is done. And pulling out, even though the president didn't say that today but raised the specter that it could happen, if the U.S. pulls out the thing could unravel, that would leave the United States isolated, not Iran. It would allow Iran to go back and do whatever it wants and blame the United States for it. And that would be what the rest of the world would think. And it would be very difficult for the United States.

As for the sunset clauses, of course people want to see a forever sunset. No sunset. A forever deal with this. But it wasn't possible. And all the proponents of the deal, and those who struck it, remind us that there is a forever clause on the prohibition against nuclear weapons, that under a certain period of time it foresaw Iran -- if the deal continued and all sides maintained this deal, signing on to the additional protocol of the NPT, which allows anytime, anywhere, aggressive inspections into everywhere.

So Iran had agreed to that. And most of the provisions on the nuclear program were way beyond, you know, just the next several years. So it's very hard to see how weakening this deal is going to achieve what the president wants, which is all the bad things that Iran is accused of to be solved (ph) and how weakening this deal can increase U.S. national security, Israeli national security, global national security, at a time when you're trying to persuade others who actually are nuclear armed, have bolted that stable, North Korea, to come in from the cold and freeze and contain their program.

So that is why opponents of what the president has done are very concerned about how they go forward to keep a more secure world, rather than add a new level of insecurity.

BLITZER: I mean I thought it was significant that the president said he wants further study by the U.S. intelligence community --

AMANPOUR: Yes.

BLITZER: Of the cooperation between Iran and North Korea right now. He's raising that possibility.

In recent weeks, several of the president's top national security advisers made no secret of their conviction that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENERAL JOSEPH DUNFORD, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Iran is not in material breach of the agreement. And I do believe the agreement to date has delayed the development of a nuclear capability by Iran.

REX TILLERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE: My view on the nuclear deal is, they are in technical compliance of the nuclear arrangement.

SEN. ANGUS KING (I) MAINE: Do you believe it's in our national security interest at the present time to remain in the JCPOA? That's a yes or no question.

JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Yes, senator, I do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

Tony Blinken's our global affairs analyst, former deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration.

You were working with Secretary Kerry at the time. You worked closely in putting this deal together. The president says it's one of the worst deals -- it's maybe the worst deal ever. And you guys simply signed on to this horrendous deal.

TONY BLINKEN, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I've often wondered if the president's actually read the deal. He certainly would have great difficulty explaining it.

But the fact is, with this incredibly difficult relationship with Iran, the one thing that's working is the nuclear deal. We have pulled them way back from the threshold of being able to have a nuclear weapon. That makes it easier to do something very challenging, which is to deal with the many other manifestations of their bad behavior, support for terrorism, destabilizing activities. If they were on the threshold of a nuclear weapon, which we denied them, it would be a heck of a lot harder to do that.

So this -- what the president's doing today is actually totally counterproductive to his stated aims of trying to more effectively contain Iran. It's also a huge gift to the hardliners of Tehran in their struggle with the pragmatists for supremacy. This is the "I told you so" moment for hardliners in Iran. America is not good to its word.

So this is -- I think the president having -- basically talked himself into a corner during the campaign trashing the deal. Then he becomes president and under the law he has this very galling thing, which is to have to certify every 90 days that Iran is complying. And he's done it twice because under the facts they are.

[13:25:07] He wanted to get out from under that trap. Now it's with Congress. This is going to be very fraught, Wolf, because they have 60 days to consider this. And who knows what happens in during those 60 days. This could push Congress to actually pull the plug on the deal. If that happens, America will be isolated, not Iran.

BLITZER: Because the Treasury Department has just released, even as we're speaking right now, the new guidelines on these new sanctions. And the headline is, Treasury designates the IRGC -- the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- of Iran, under terrorism authority, and targets IRGC and military supporters under counter proliferation authority.

So there will be new sanctions imposed against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Is that going to be seen, Tony, as a violation of the agreement by the Iranian regime?

BLINKEN: Well, I don't think it will be seen as a violation of the agreement, but we have a large battery of existing sanctions against individuals, in the IRGC and the Quds force. We have plenty of authorities to go after them.

I think there is a risk that the IRGC will take this and try to retaliate in some fashion, including against American forces in Iraq using Shiite military to do that. So you have to be very careful.

Previous administrations, including the Bush administration, as well as the Obama administration, used the existing individual sanctions authorities that we have to deal with the RGC. We were very careful about going after it as an entity and we'll have to see how they actually use this.

BLITZER: When the president says there have been multiple violations of the agreement in terms of the centrifuges, in terms of intimidating international inspectors, not letting them go to military sites, does he have a good point that these are violations, in fact, of the agreement?

BLINKEN: No, he doesn't, because what's happened is this. On a number of occasions, there have been concerns raised about certain actions that Iran has taken under the agreement. Those actions were brought to what's already in the agreement, which is basically a dispute resolution mechanism. And we actually control that with our European allies. We have the majority vote in that. Each of these instances where we've had a concern has been resolved and Iran has pulled back from doing things that we thought were questionable.

On the military sites, let's clear up one thing, there is access to military sites under the agreement. There's this red herring out there that they're not allowed -- the inspectors are not allowed to go there. If they have concerns about an activity taking place anywhere in Iran, they can ask for access. If Iran denies access and stonewalls and blocks, it can get referred to the Security Council. And a single member of the Security Council, that is the United States, can snap back all the sanctions if they think Iran is blocking access.

BLITZER: Mark Dubowitz is with us as well, executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

You see what the president is doing today as a positive step, right?

MARK DUBOWITZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: Well, I think it's a first positive step. I mean there's a lot to be seen in terms of the implementation of a strategy. But I think what the president has done is very clearly said that the problem with the nuclear deal is not a question of compliance or violations. That the problem with the nuclear deal is that the deal itself, because the restrictions go away over time, give Iran patient pathways to nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles and give Iran the ability -- this Iranian regime to build up a trillion dollar economy immunized against our ability to use sanctions. And they give this Iranian regime what they've gotten already, which is the ability to build out regional (INAUDIBLE) in places like Iraq and Syria. So it's not a question of violations.

And, in fact, the president has specifically decided not to certify the deal, not in terms of compliance, but he said very specifically that the sanctions relief that's been provided is not appropriate and proportionate to the steps that Iran is taking and is supposed to take under the nuclear deal. That's the bad deal condition of this Iran nuclear agreement review. That is the condition under which he is certified --

BLITZER: So would you have liked the president to go one step further, not just not certify that the Iranians are in compliance, but to break up, rip up the deal? He said it's the worst deal ever. During the campaign he said he would tear it apart. Would you have liked him to have done that, or are you satisfied with what he has done, said, you know what, we're going to now work with Congress and see if we can negotiate a better deal?

DUBOWITZ: Yes, I've long recommended that we shouldn't walk away from the deal. We should actually try to fix the deal. And I think what he's done now, he's sent a message to Congress -- and let's also remember, he sent a message to the Europeans that I'm going to give you time and space to actually fix the deal. Legislatively, but more importantly I'm going to work with the European allies to try and do what they already say they're willing to do.

As the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said, we are willing to find ways to supplement, complement, strengthen this deal. We'll look at sunset provisions. We'll look at missiles. And, of course, Iran's regional activities. The French position, the European position, has moved from keep it to fix it in the past three months. And that movement has taken place because of their fears that Donald Trump will walk away from this deal.

BLITZER: Let me get Tony Blinken's reaction. What do you think?

[13:29:48] BLINKEN: Well, look, Wolf, first, it's important to know that while certain provisions under the deal expire 10, 15, 20, 25 years after, Iran is permanently barred from developing nuclear weapons under the non-proliferation treaty. It is permanently barred from doing weapons related activities. And because it's signing on to the additional protocol, it's signed -- it's taken that up provisionally right now and in year eight of the deal it's supposed to actually ratify it. That means it's subject permanently to inspections.