President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he is quitting the Iran nuclear deal, pitting him against the United States’ closest allies and leaving the future of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions in question.
“I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” Trump said from the White House.
“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. If we do nothing we know exactly what will happen.”
In announcing his decision, CNN said Trump will initiate new sanctions to go forward, crippling the touchstone agreement negotiated by his predecessor, according to a US official and a person familiar with the plan.
“The so-called Iran deal was supposed to protect the United States and our allies from the lunacy of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a weapon that will only endanger the survival of the Iranian regime,” the President said. “In fact, the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and over time reach the brink of a nuclear breakout.”
The President added: “Today, we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie.”
Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the US failed to live up to its international commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran deal.
Rouhani, speaking in a live television address from Tehran, added that the agreement was not a bilateral agreement between the United States and Iran, but rather a multilateral international agreement endorsed by the UN Security Council.
Senior Trump administration officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats have said Iran is adhering to its commitments under the deal. But Trump has argued while they may be sticking to the letter of the accord, they have violated its spirit by fostering discord in the region.
Trump derided the deal as an embarrassment that gave the regime dollars at the same time it sponsored terrorism.
“At the point when the US had maximum leverage, this disastrous deal gave this regime and it’s a regime of great terror, many billions of dollars, some of it in actually cash, a great embarrassment to me as a citizen,” Trump said.
The sanctions could take months to go into effect as the US government develops guidance for companies and banks. But reapplying the sanctions which were lifted in exchange for Iran’s commitment to curb its nuclear program, would cripple the 2015 accord that Trump has deemed “the single worst deal I’ve ever seen drawn by anybody.”
Long a harsh critic of the nuclear accord, Trump has until now resisted taking steps to fully withdraw from the plan.
It further isolates Trump on the global stage, where he has angered even the staunchest US allies by reneging on US commitments to the Paris climate accord and pulling out of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
The grace period until the sanctions are imposed may offer the deal’s proponents an opening to negotiate. But the uncertainty is expected to forestall foreign investments in Iran that were made possible by the pact.
Trump was keeping his decision closely held on Tuesday morning. Marc Short, the President’s legislative director, said lawmakers would be notified later Tuesday afternoon.
Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Capitol Hill midday to inform members of Congress of Trump’s decision to withdraw, people familiar with the matter said.
Trump, meanwhile, spoke early in the day with Chinese President Xi Jinping and phoned French President Emmanuel Macron mid-morning.
A French source familiar with the call between Trump and Macron described the conversation as “very, very disappointing.”
Macron was one of several European leaders who had lobbied Trump to remain in the deal, arguing it remains the best way to curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Both Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel flew to Washington to make their appeals in person.
Trump told them the deal failed to address Iran’s ballistic missile program or its support of terror in the Middle East. They appeared receptive and began negotiations on a separate deal that would address his concerns. But European diplomats expressed only pessimism that their efforts would be successful.
“It’s pretty obvious to me that unless something changes in the next few days, I believe the President will not waive the sanctions,” one European diplomat told reporters on Monday.
Trump’s final decision to withdraw from the deal was made over the weekend, according to a person familiar with the discussions, though it was long considered a foregone conclusion inside the White House.
National security adviser John Bolton, an Iran hawk who nonetheless told people he was committed to providing all options to Trump, offered a variety of paths, including reimposing all sanctions, applying new sanctions, or allowing for more time to negotiate with the Europeans.
Trump determined that more time would not bridge disagreements, most pointedly his demand that Iran’s nuclear program be curbed past the current deal’s sunset in 2030.
In his talks with Macron and Merkel, Trump left little doubt that he was planning to withdraw, according to Western diplomats. But he insisted he hadn’t made a final decision and kept his precise plans guarded.
Key details on Iran nuclear deal
In 2015, Iran agreed a long-term deal on its nuclear programme with the P5+1 group of world powers – the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.
It came after years of tension over Iran’s alleged efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran insisted that its nuclear programme was entirely peaceful, but the international community did not believe that.
Under the accord, Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors in return for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.
Here are the commitments set out in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Enriched uranium is used to make reactor fuel, but also nuclear weapons.
Iran had two facilities – Natanz and Fordo – where uranium hexafluoride gas was fed into centrifuges to separate out the most fissile isotope, U-235.
Low-enriched uranium, which has a 3%-4% concentration of U-235, can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power plants. “Weapons-grade” uranium is 90% enriched.
In July 2015, Iran had almost 20,000 centrifuges. Under the JCPOA, it was limited to installing no more than 5,060 of the oldest and least efficient centrifuges at Natanz until 2026 – 15 years after the deal’s “implementation day” in January 2016.
The BBC said Iran’s uranium stockpile was reduced by 98% to 300kg (660lbs), a figure that must not be exceeded until 2031. It must also keep the stockpile’s level of enrichment at 3.67%.
By January 2016, Iran had drastically reduced the number of centrifuges installed at Natanz and Fordo, and shipped tonnes of low-enriched uranium to Russia.
In addition, research and development must take place only at Natanz and be limited until 2024.
No enrichment will be permitted at Fordo until 2031, and the underground facility will be converted into a nuclear, physics and technology centre. The 1,044 centrifuges at the site will produce radioisotopes for use in medicine, agriculture, industry and science.
Iran had been building a heavy-water nuclear facility near the town of Arak. Spent fuel from a heavy-water reactor contains plutonium suitable for a nuclear bomb.
World powers had originally wanted Arak dismantled because of the proliferation risk. Under an interim nuclear deal agreed in 2013, Iran agreed not to commission or fuel the reactor.
Under the JCPOA, Iran said it would redesign the reactor so it could not produce any weapons-grade plutonium, and that all spent fuel would be sent out of the country as long as the modified reactor exists.
Iran will not be permitted to build additional heavy-water reactors or accumulate any excess heavy water until 2031.
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Russia, Britain regret Trump’s decision
Russia is “disappointed” in US President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran deal, Dmitry Polyansky, a deputy Russian ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters today.
“We are disappointed as we were before, so it was no surprise,” he said.
When asked if Russia will call a UN Security Council meeting regarding the US decision, he said, “all the options are on the table.”
Also, British Prime Minister Theresa May said she “regrets” the US withdrawal from the Iran deal in a joint statement with the UK, Germany and France.
A Downing Street spokesperson said:
The Prime Minister held a joint telephone call with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this evening, where they discussed the US President’s announcement and agreed their continuing commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Israel’s PM: We support Trump’s decision
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel fully supports President Trump’s announcement to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
His remarks were made in a live television address from Jerusalem after Trump’s address.
Europe determined to preserve Iran deal, EU says
The European Union’s top diplomat says Europe is “determined to preserve” the Iran deal following President Trump’s decision to withdraw from it.
The EU’s Foreign Minister, Federica Mogherini, said she expects the “rest of the international community to continue implementing the Iran nuclear deal.”
“The Iran nuclear deal is working and delivering, to ensure Tehran doesn’t develop nuclear weapons,” Mogherini said in Rome.
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