Story highlights Secretary of State Tillerson issued similar critique earlier this year

Iranian Foreign Minister: Trump administration sending "contradictory signals"

(CNN) The United States said Monday that Iran is continuing to comply with the terms of the nuclear deal that curbed Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

But the Trump administration coupled its certification to Congress of Iran's compliance with a blistering critique of Iran's non-nuclear activities, saying Iran is "unquestionably in default of the spirit" of the deal.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued a similar critique earlier this year when the US certified the deal for the first time since President Donald Trump, a fierce critique of the deal, took office.

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The US is also considering additional sanctions against Iranian entities to target the country's ballistic missile program and state sponsorship of terrorism, two items not covered by the deal, a senior administration official said.

"The secretary of state -- and the President -- intends to emphasize that Iran remains one of the most dangerous threats to the US and to regional security," another senior administration official said before ticking through a list of a half-dozen areas where Iran remains a destabilizing force. "Moving forward, the administration intends to employ a strategy that will address the totality of Iran's malign behavior and not just focus on the nuclear deal."

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