Fox News is reporting today that there is an aspect of the Iranian nuclear deal that conflicts with existing law.

The article explains:

At issue is a passage tucked away in ancillary paperwork attached to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, as the Iran nuclear deal is formally known. Specifically, Section 5.1.2 of Annex II provides that in exchange for Iranian compliance with the terms of the deal, the U.S. “shall…license non-U.S. entities that are owned or controlled by a U.S. person to engage in activities with Iran that are consistent with this JCPOA.”

In short, this means that foreign subsidiaries of U.S. parent companies will, under certain conditions, be allowed to do business with Iran. The problem is that theIran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act (ITRA), signed into law by President Obama in August 2012, was explicit in closing the so-called “foreign sub” loophole.

Indeed, ITRA also stipulated, in Section 218, that when it comes to doing business with Iran, foreign subsidiaries of U.S. parent firms shall in all cases be treated exactly the same as U.S. firms: namely, what is prohibited for U.S. parent firms has to be prohibited for foreign subsidiaries, and what is allowed for foreign subsidiaries has to be allowed for U.S. parent firms.

The President does not have the authority to simply ignore the law and tell corporations to ignore the law. However, based on past experience, the law may not matter. One of the major problems with the Obama Administration is the ignoring of laws–the idea that President Obama can create any law he wants with ‘a pen and a phone.’ If Congress wants to be anything other than irrelevant, it is time for them to step up and act. Either the Iranian agreement is legal or it is not. Based on this news report, it is not.