Trump Makes Unsupported Claim That Obama’s Iran Deal Included Granting US Citizenship To 2,500 Iranians
- 6 years ago
President Trump on Tuesday again went after former President Obama over the Iran deal.
President Trump on Tuesday made an unsupported claim about the 2015 Iran nuclear including guarantees of US citizenship for thousands of Iranians. "Just out that the Obama Administration granted citizenship, during the terrible Iran Deal negotiation, to 2,500 Iranians - including to government officials. How big (and bad) is that?" he wrote. The assertion has yet to be substantiated, but what is known about it so far suggests verification is unlikely. According to The Guardian, it appears to be based on a statement made by a cleric who is a known opponent of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and the deal Iran struck with the U.S. On June 26, Mojtaba Zonnour told a niche Iranian paper, "When Mr Obama, during the JCPOA negotiations, decided to do a favour to these men [Rouhani and his aides], he granted citizenships to 2,500 Iranians and some officials competed with each other over whose children could be part of these 2,500 people." By July 2, the claim had made its way to Fox News' website, notes CNN. A number of former Obama officials familiar with the Iran nuclear deal have refuted the allegation. One called it "absurd and entirely false." Furthermore, "according to statistics published by the Department of Homeland Security, there doesn't seem to be a significant rise in new U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents from Iran over the last decade," ABC News notes.
President Trump on Tuesday made an unsupported claim about the 2015 Iran nuclear including guarantees of US citizenship for thousands of Iranians. "Just out that the Obama Administration granted citizenship, during the terrible Iran Deal negotiation, to 2,500 Iranians - including to government officials. How big (and bad) is that?" he wrote. The assertion has yet to be substantiated, but what is known about it so far suggests verification is unlikely. According to The Guardian, it appears to be based on a statement made by a cleric who is a known opponent of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and the deal Iran struck with the U.S. On June 26, Mojtaba Zonnour told a niche Iranian paper, "When Mr Obama, during the JCPOA negotiations, decided to do a favour to these men [Rouhani and his aides], he granted citizenships to 2,500 Iranians and some officials competed with each other over whose children could be part of these 2,500 people." By July 2, the claim had made its way to Fox News' website, notes CNN. A number of former Obama officials familiar with the Iran nuclear deal have refuted the allegation. One called it "absurd and entirely false." Furthermore, "according to statistics published by the Department of Homeland Security, there doesn't seem to be a significant rise in new U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents from Iran over the last decade," ABC News notes.