WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump yesterday pulled the US out of an international nuclear deal with Iran and vowed to reimpose sanctions on Tehran.
“This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made,” Trump said in a televised address from the White House. “It didn’t bring calm. It didn’t bring peace. And it never will.”
The 2015 deal, worked out by the US, five other international powers and Iran, eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for the country limiting its nuclear programme.
But Trump complains that the agreement does not address Iran’s ballistic missile programme, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 nor its role in conflicts in Yemen and Syria. He also said the agreement did not prevent Iran from cheating and continuing to pursue nuclear weapons.
“It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement,” he said. “The Iran deal is defective at its core.”
Trump said he was willing to negotiate a new deal with Iran, but Tehran already has ruled that out and threatened unspecified retaliation if Washington pulled out.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Iran will remain in the nuclear deal without Washington. Iranian state television said Trump’s decision to withdraw was “illegal, illegitimate and undermines international agreements.”
Trump did not provide details of what he described as the “highest level of economic sanctions” that he is reimposing on Iran. According to the US Treasury, sanctions related to Iran’s energy, auto and financial sectors will be reimposed in three and six months.
Meanwhile, European countries yesterday said they remain committed to the Iran nuclear deal and they called on Washington not to prevent other countries from implementing it.
“Together, we emphasise our continuing commitment to the JCPoA,” the leaders of Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement, referring to the deal by an acronym. “This agreement remains important for our shared security.”
“We urge the US to ensure that the structures of the JCPoA can remain intact, and to avoid taking action which obstructs its full implementation by all other parties to the deal,” said the statement, provided by British Prime Minister
Theresa May’s office after she spoke by phone to France’s President Emmanual Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Russia’s envoy to the European Union said Moscow would also continue its efforts to keep the deal functioning.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the other signatories of the Iran nuclear deal to stick to their commitments.
Minutes before Trump’s announcement, Israel said it had instructed local authorities in the Israeli-held Golan Heights to “unlock and ready (bomb) shelters” after identifying what the military described as “irregular activity of Iranian forces in Syria.” The military statement said its defence systems had been deployed “and IDF (Israel Defence Force) troops are on high alert for an attack.”