The White House has disputed a think-tank report saying the United States and its negotiating partners agreed to secret exemptions for Iran in last year's landmark nuclear agreement.
"The argument that somehow this agreement was implemented before Iran came into compliance is just not true," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on September 1.
The report released by the Institute for Science and International Security said one exemption, for example, allowed Iran to exceed the agreement's limitations on how much low-enriched uranium could be kept at its nuclear facilities, although such uranium stores can be configured into weapons-grade uranium.
The exemptions were approved by the United States and its negotiating partners -- Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany, the report said.
While administration officials insisted Iran fully complied with the agreement before sanctions were lifted on January 16, Republicans trumpeted the report as evidence that the deal was a giveaway to Iran.
"It's now clear President [Barack] Obama gave away the store to secure a weak agreement that is full of loopholes," said retired Army General Michael Flynn, a top adviser to U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.