WASHINGTON _ Secretary of State Rex Tillerson added his voice Thursday to Trump administration skepticism of the nuclear disarmament deal with Iran, a month ahead of a congressional deadline for the White House to certify Tehran's compliance.
The administration separately extended waivers on economic sanctions against Iran, in keeping with another deadline. That means key sanctions that were lifted in exchange for Iran's agreement to give up its nuclear program remain suspended.
Iran has met its obligations so far under the 2015 accord, according to the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations watchdog agency assigned to monitor the deal.
But the White House has hinted strongly that President Donald Trump won't certify to Congress next month that Iran is in compliance, as a U.S. law requires.
It's not entirely clear what would happen at that point, and whether the U.S. would seek to withdraw from the accord. Doing so could allow Tehran to restart its nuclear development, which was blocked by the deal.
Trump reiterated his opposition to the Obama-era deal Thursday aboard Air Force One after he had toured hurricane damage in Florida.
"The Iran deal is one of the worst deals I've ever seen," Trump told reporters. "We are not going to stand for what they're doing to this country. They have violated so many different elements, but they've also violated the spirit of that deal."
Tillerson, speaking to reporters in London, said no decision had been made. But he said he believed Iran was violating the spirit of the accord by continuing to foment terrorism and instability in the Middle East.
"President Trump has made it clear: We must take into account the totality of Iranian threats, not just Iran's nuclear capabilities," Tillerson said.
"In our view, Iran is clearly in default of the expectations" laid out in the agreement that calls for it to be an agent of stability, he said.
The deal, which was brokered by the U.S. and five other world powers, only addresses Iran's nuclear threat and does not deal with terrorism or other activities.
After the deal was signed, the Obama administration added sanctions on Iran's ballistic missile program and its support for terrorist groups, and the Trump administration has added to those.
The Treasury Department on Thursday, for example, blacklisted 11 Iranian individuals and entities for aiding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in production of ballistic missiles or for participating in "malicious cyber-enabled" crimes.
Tillerson also said he agreed with Trump that the latest U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea, which the United States supported, were still too weak.
"We had hoped for a much stronger resolution," he said.
The administration had sought a full U.N. embargo on oil exports to North Korea, among other harsh measures, but China made clear it disagreed.
Tillerson said the provision was aimed exclusively at China because it supplies neighboring North Korea with most of its oil, as well as most of its trade.
To avoid a Chinese veto, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley agreed to soften the resolution to reduce oil exports to Pyongyang but not cut them off completely.
Tillerson said he hoped Beijing would decide "on their own to take it up upon themselves to use that very powerful tool of oil supply to persuade North Korea to reconsider" its development of nuclear weapons and its approach to negotiations.
"That is a very powerful tool that has been used in the past, and we hope that China will not reject that," Tillerson said.
