Nobel peace laureates denounce Trump’s Iran move

GENEVA: The nuclear weapons disarmament campaigners awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize denounced US President Donald Trump’s decision to decertify the Iran nuclear deal, saying it makes proliferation more likely.

“President Trump’s rejection of the JCPOA is an incitement to proliferation, makes achieving further agreements to rein in the nuclear threat more difficult, and increases global risk of nuclear use,” the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said in a statement.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has curbed Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

“The JCPOA is a demonstration of how well diplomacy can work, and like the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, it reflects the urgent global imperative to eliminate nuclear weapons and the grave threat they pose,” commented Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of ICAN.

The nuclear agreement was struck in July 2015 by Iran and permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany – establishing controls to prevent Tehran from developing an atomic bomb.

Trump stopped short of withdrawing from the 2015 accord, but ‘decertified’ his support for the agreement and left its fate in the hands of the US Congress.

The US leader said the nuclear agreement had failed to address Iranian subversion in its region and its illegal missile program and warned the agreement was under continuous review and could be terminated, a stance which ICAN decried as a policy liable to ramp up the threat of conflict.

“President Trump’s attempt to disrupt the Iran deal, despite the fact that the IAEA has repeatedly certified that Iran is complying with its terms, is a jarring reminder of the immense nuclear danger now facing the world and the urgent need for all states to prohibit and eliminate these weapons” Fihn said.

“If ever there were a moment for nations to declare their unequivocal opposition to nuclear weapons, that moment is now,” she added.

ICAN had urged Trump to uphold the deal with Iran which the US leader has dismissed as ‘the worst deal ever,’ saying it saw no evidence that Tehran is not in compliance.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said Monday that the UN nuclear watchdog believed Iran was respecting the deal.

Last week ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to consign the atomic bomb to history. — AFP