Criticisms are emerging in the US against President Barack Obama’s extension of the state of emergency against Iran for a yet another year.

President Obama in a letter to the Congress on Tuesday said that US relations with Iran had not returned to normal, adding that it is therefore necessary for the administration to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 12170 with respect to Iran.

In November 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed the Executive Order 12170, which froze all assets of the Iranian government in the United States.

William L. Anderson, a professor of Economics at Frostburg State University, has told Press TV that Obama’s move is part of America’s anti-Iran rhetoric.

“We do not have any state of emergency toward Iran,” said Anderson. “You have not seen any troops mobilization, I don’t think Iran plans to invade us, shoot any missiles at us,” he added.  

Anderson further emphasized that Obama is trying to keep the Republican-controlled Congress happy through such moves.

The Republican Party’s narrative is that Iran is dangerous to the US, he said. Nevertheless, he said that narrative could change in light of the Iran-P5+1 nuclear agreement reached in Vienna back in July.    

“I think that it [the nuclear deal] is going to make it harder for the politicians here to say that Iran is an immediate threat to us,” said Anderson. “At some point, we just have to say that Iran is not a threat to our country,” he added.

The United States, Anderson said, has threatened Iran a lot more than Iran has threatened it.