November 10, 2017
President Trump (photo) Monday renewed for another year the “National Emergency with Respect to Iran” that was first proclaimed November 14, 1979, by President Jimmy Carter in the wake of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran the week before. The emergency has been renewed annually since then by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and, now, Donald Trump. The Trump proclamation used the same wording that has been used for decades. Iran decries the annual renewals as an anti-Iran ritual, but the only thing the emergency does now is provide legal protection for Iranian assets that were seized in 1979 and cannot be seized by Americans who have sued Iran as long as the national emergency continues.
