Trump’s Iran deal backtrack a disaster

It is deeply regrettable that US President Donald Trump is undermining the Iran nuclear deal signed two-years-ago and thereby jeopardising the non-proliferation goal which the international community holds dear for world peace. His action in refusing to certify the deal, by which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in return for lifting global sanctions, is patently outrageous and condemnable. That Trump had repudiated the painstakingly achieved Paris climate accord claiming that it gave undue advantage to India and China at the cost of the Unite States' interests shows the dangerously destructive mindset of the American president. Trump had then said with scant justification that the agreement would lead to a redistribution of American wealth to other countries and transfer of American jobs abroad which were arguments that evoked contempt and ridicule. Now, by undermining the Iran deal, he has taken the world closer to a catastrophe. Under American law, the administration has to certify that Iran is technically in compliance with the deal that was struck between Iran and six other world powers, including the US, every 90 days. All other signatories, as well as the UN, insist that Iran is fully complying.

Calling it the “worst agreement in American diplomatic history”, disavowed it days before the next certification was due. The head of Iran’s nuclear agency has warned the US against undermining the 2015 nuclear deal, saying international nonproliferation efforts as well as Washington’s international standing would suffer as a result. But the US under Trump is unrelenting. The Republican-controlled Congress now has 60 days to decide whether sanctions should be re-imposed. But regardless of that, Trump has wrecked the understanding that had been reached under Barack Obama’s presidency. The effect of this would be that the hardliners in Iran who seemed down and out will get resurrected in the eyes of the people. Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi told an international conference on enhancing nuclear safety recently that Washington’s recent “delusionary negative postures do not augur well” for keeping the deal intact. And he is dead right. Clearly, Trump’s stock in Europe is already at a low ebb. Recently, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, praised the 2015 deal as a “win-win” solution that was working.