MOSCOW, November 12 (RIA Novosti) — The US President Barack Obama extended the national emergency with respect to Iran for one more year, the White House press service said Wednesday.
"Because our relations with Iran have not yet returned to normal, and the process of implementing the agreements with Iran, dated January 19, 1981, is still under way, I [Barack Obama] have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency… with respect to Iran," the president said in a letter to the US Congress.
The United States declared a national emergency with respect to Iran on November 14, 1979. The order allows US presidents to unilaterally impose sanctions against the Islamic Republic and regulate trade with the country. The renewal of the measure is considered every year.
Diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States stalled in 1979, when radical supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini, former Iranian leader, took by storm the US embassy in Tehran and captured 52 members of the mission as hostages.
Iran is currently targeted by a number of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, the United States, the European Union and some other countries over the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear program, which Iran claims is of purely peaceful nature.
Last January, the United States agreed to provide limited sanctions relief if Iran froze its nuclear program. Since then, Iran has partially limited its uranium production.
