Department Press Briefing - August 15, 2017

Heather Nauert the Spokesperson of the Department Press Briefing

Washington, DC , August 15, 2017-- At a press briefing at the US State Department announcing the International Religious Freedom Report, Ms Nauert, the spokesperson for the department said, the Secretary released the State Department’s Annual Report on International Religious Freedom that provides an overview of the status of religious freedom today in nearly 199 countries and territories. In his remarks, Secretary Tillerson affirmed that religious freedom is a foreign policy priority in this administration. As the Secretary said today, “No one should have to live in fear, worship in secret, or face discrimination, because of his or her religious beliefs.”...

In response to a question from the media asking on Iran that according toIran’s parliament passing legislation to increase spending on its ballistic missile program and on the IRGC, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization. And that the Iranian president remarks that Iran’s nuclear program could be restarted within hours and it would be more sophisticated than before if there are more sanctions, Ms. Nauert's reponse was: I’m not going to respond to that threat or that hypothetical from President Rouhani. The Trump administration remains committed to countering a full range of threats that Iran poses, not just to the region but also to the world, including its ballistic missile development.

Ms. Nauert continued to say that there’s a full Iran review policy that is still underway, so I don’t want to get ahead of what that review policy is going to be. In terms of where we have stood at this point, the United States has from the IAEA then recertified to Congress, so they know where we stand on that issue. But we still believe that what Iran is doing is destabilizing and that the JCPOA doesn’t fully recognize and comprehend and encompass all those destabilizing activities that Iran is engaged in.

A reporter asked: Your position is that you’re not violating the spirit of it by not encouraging European companies or other companies to do business with Iran?

Ms. Nauert replied: I know that we have ongoing conversations with many other countries to discuss this. I know that other countries also share our concerns about what I’ll just broadly call the destabilizing activities. We know what they do in the region. We know what they do to some of our U.S. Navy ships. I mean, that’s just one – one example of some of the things that they do.

Extracted from the Department Press Briefing - August 15, 2017