US dumps Iran deal
Allies unhappy as Trump decision raises Middle East tension
PRESIDENT Donald Trump has pulled the US out of an international nuclear deal with Iran, raising the risk of conflict in the Middle East, upsetting European allies and casting uncertainty over global oil supplies.
Mr Trump said in a televised address from the White House yesterday that he would reimpose US economic sanctions on Iran to undermine “a horrible onesided deal that should have never, ever have been made”.
The 2015 agreement, devised by the US, five other world powers and Iran, lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program. The pact was designed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.
But Mr Trump complained the accord did not address Iran’s ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 or its role in conflicts in Yemen and Syria.
Mr Trump’s decision intensifies the strain on the trans-Atlantic alliance. One by one, European leaders came to Washington and tried to meet his demands, while pleading with him to preserve the deal. But by the middle of last week it had become clear that Mr Trump would not be moved.
“We felt like we were going through the motions,” said a person close to the negotiations.
Even Mr Trump’s top aides had not been seeking aggressively to talk Mr Trump out of withdrawing because his mind had been made up, a White House official said. The Trump administration kept the door open to negotiating another deal with allies, but it is far from clear if the Europeans would go for that and if they could convince Iran to accept it.
The leaders of Britain, Germany and France, which were signatories to the deal along with China and Russia, said in a joint statement that Mr Trump’s decision was a cause for “regret and concern”. A Western diplomat was more pointed.
“It announces sanctions for which the first victims will be Trump’s European allies,” the diplomat said, adding that it was clear Mr Trump did not care about the alliance.
Abandoning the Iran pact is one of the most consequential decisions of Mr Trump’s high-stakes “America First” policy.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that Iran would remain in the deal without Washington. Nevertheless, Mr Trump’s decision to exit the deal could tip the balance of power in favour of hardliners looking to constrain Mr Rouhani’s ability to open up to the West.