Trump declares US withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal in controversial move

United States President, Donald Trump, has announced that the United States is withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, ignoring efforts by America’s European allies to halt the move.

“I made clear that if the deal could not be fixed, the United States would no longer be a party to the agreement,” Trump said in a highly-anticipated address on Tuesday.

“The Iran deal is defective at its core. If we do nothing, we will know what exactly will happen.

“Therefore, I am announcing today, that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” he said.

Under the deal signed in Vienna with six world powers – the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union – Iran scaled back its uranium enrichment programme and promised not to pursue nuclear weapons.

In exchange, international sanctions were lifted, allowing it to sell its oil and gas worldwide. However, secondary US sanctions remain.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly confirmed that Tehran has been meeting its nuclear commitments fully.

A White House statement issued after Trump’s speech said the US president directed his “administration to immediately begin the process of re-imposing sanctions” related to the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Trump’s decision fulfills a campaign promise to cancel the 2015 pact, which he has repeatedly described as “the worst deal ever”. “The re-imposed sanctions will target critical sectors of Iran’s economy, such as its energy, petrochemical, and financial sectors.”

Responding to the development, former US president Barack Obama described Trump’s decision to abandon the Iran nuclear deal as “misguided” and a “serious mistake.”

“The reality is clear. The JCPOA is working,” Obama said in a statement, referring to the deal his administration brokered in 2015. “That is a view shared by our European allies, independent experts, and the current US secretary of defense.”

“That is why today’s announcement is so misguided,” he added. “I believe that the decision to put the JCPOA at risk without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake.”

Also reacting, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attacked Washington’s “empty signatures” and said there was a short time to negotiate with the other world powers to keep the nuclear deal in place.

“I have ordered the foreign ministry to negotiate with the European countries, China and Russia in coming weeks. If at the end of this short period we conclude that we can fully benefit from the JCPOA with the cooperation of all countries, the deal would remain,” he added.

Thomas Countryman, former US assistant secretary of state who helped negotiate the deal, said withdrawing from the agreement would further thrust the Middle East into the path of instability.

Countryman said with Trump’s decision, the US becomes the first of the seven parties who is violating the agreement.

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“That would be a serious case of foreign policy malpractice, and it would have several effects that would play out very slowly.”

He also said the US is now left with diminished credibility to negotiate a better deal, while making negotiations with North Korea “more complicated”.

Hours before his speech, the White House said Trump had called French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss his decision.

Following the announcement, Macron took to Twitter to express the “regret” of Washington’s European allies over the decision.

“France, Germany and the UK regret the US decision to leave the JCPOA,” Macron said. “The nuclear non-proliferation regime is at stake.”

In a joint statement earlier on Tuesday, the European Union, Britain, France and Germany said they met Iranian officials in Brussels and reaffirmed their support “to the continued full and effective implementation of the JCPOA by all sides”.

Meanwhile, Russia warned on Tuesday that a “very serious situation” will emerge if Trump pulls out of the pact.

“I’ve never seen the Middle East closer to the brink of war, a confrontation of sort, than it is today – at least not since the George W. Bush administration went against Iraq and tried to go against Iran.”Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, called Trump’s announcement “a major crossroad not only for the Middle East” but also for “international security”.

Bishara said Trump did not only “alienate his European allies” but his announcement was “a call for an all-out confrontation with Iran” and “a total embrace of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s and of Israel’s logic for the Middle East”.

“In fact, it’s Trump who embraced Netanyahu’s vision of a middle east where a confrontation, a showdown with Iran is necessary for peace and security,” added Bishara.

 

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