World Bulletin / News Desk

Before Donald Trump has even arrived in the White House, Iran says the United States has already violated the nuclear deal and threatened to build atomic-powered ships in retaliation. Is the historic accord at risk?

ISA, first introduced in 1996, aimed to cut off foreign investment in Iran's oil and gas sector to starve it of funds that might be used for its nuclear programme or to fund "terror" groups.

Key provisions of ISA were suspended in January when the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers came into force, although Washington has kept others linked to human rights and terrorism in place.

The White House said renewing ISA was pointless since it remains suspended so long as Tehran sticks to its promises to curb its nuclear programme.

Knowing it would pass anyway, President Barack Obama let the law through, but refused to sign it.

The president symbolically let slide a deadline to ink his name on the legislation -- which he has called unnecessary -- meaning the 10-year sanctions renewal will automatically become law.

Even if it were pointless, however, Tehran was up in arms, with both the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani calling the renewal a "clear violation" of the accord and lodging a formal complaint with the United Nations.