The Washington Times- Congress is about to miss what was widely seen as a deadline to deal with�President Trump�s demands for a harder line on the�Iran�nuclear deal, failing to agree on new sanctions against�Tehran�and punting the future of the deal back to�Mr. Trump.

A Republican legislative push to establish new �triggers� that could reimpose harsh sanctions on�Iran�lifted under the Obama-era deal has gone nowhere ahead of Tuesday � the end of a 60-day unofficial deadline set by the administration for Capitol Hill to weigh in on the situation after�Mr. Trump�declared he could no longer certify that the accord was in the U.S. national interest.

Congressional aides say lawmakers still have time to propose something before�Mr. Trump�is mandated to decide again whether to weigh in on the deal, but White House aides say the president is rankled by the lack of progress on Capitol Hill and likely will pull the United States out of the deal entirely when it comes up for review on Jan. 13.

In October,�Mr. Trump�called on Congress and American allies party to the 2015 accord � including Britain, France and Germany � to propose ways to address what he called the deal�s �serious flaws,� including its failure to reimpose sanctions should�Iran�continue to carry out ballistic missile tests in violation of existing U.N. Security Council resolutions. Russia and China also signed the accord and, to date, none of the other signatories has followed the U.S. lead in trying to overhaul the agreement.

U.N. monitors have also repeatedly said�Tehran�is honoring the letter of the 2015 agreement in curtailing its suspect nuclear programs.

�Come January, the president may be extremely frustrated that neither Congress nor the Europeans have responded to his request for ways to fix the deal,� Mark Dubowitz, an analyst on�Iran�sanctions and CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in an interview. �It�s entirely possible at that time that the president will walk away from the deal.�