TRUMP TO WITHDRAW FROM IRAN NDEAL
Khamenei threatens to quit landmark agreement if Washington pulls out
US President Donald Trump has all but decided to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord by May 12 but exactly how he will do so remains unclear, two White House officials and a source familiar with the administration’s internal debate said on Wednesday.
There is a chance Trump might choose to keep the US in the international pact under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief, in part because of “alliance maintenance” with France and to save face for French President Emmanuel Macron, who met Trump last week and urged him to stay in, the source said.
A decision by Trump to end US sanctions relief would all but sink the agreement and could trigger a backlash by Iran, which could resume its nuclear arms programme or “punish” US allies in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, diplomats said.
Technically, Trump must decide by May 12 whether to renew “waivers” suspending some of the US sanctions on Iran. One of the White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said it was possible Trump will end up with a decision that “is not a full pullout”.
A presentation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday about what he said was documentary evidence of Tehran’s past nuclear arms programme could give Trump a fresh argument to withdraw.
The White House official said Trump was “most of the way there towards pulling out of the deal but he hasn’t made the decision”.
Trump gave Britain, France and Germany a May 12 deadline to fix what he views as the deal’s flaws — its failure to address Iran’s ballistic missile programme, the terms by which inspectors visit suspect Iranian sites, and “sunset” clauses under which some of its terms expire.
Iran warned on Thursday that it will quit a landmark nuclear deal with world powers if Trump pulls the US out of the accord.
“If the United States withdraws from the nuclear deal, then we will not stay in it,” Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by the state television website.
Iran has always denied it sought a nuclear weapon, insisting its atomic programme was for civilian purposes.
“Iran accepts the nuclear agreement as it has been prepared and will not accept adding or removing anything,” Velayati said.
“Even if countries allied with the United States, especially the Europeans, seek to revise the nuclear agreement... one of our options will be withdrawing from the accord,” he added.