Trump is expected to announce decision on Iran deal Tuesday
U.S. allies continue appeal to maintain pact
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is set to reveal his decision Tuesday on whether to keep the U.S. in the Iran deal, a move that could determine the fate of the 2015 agreement that froze Iran’s nuclear program.
The announcement is set to cap more than a year of deliberation and negotiation that has at times pitted Mr. Trump against some of his closest aides and key American allies. Mr. Trump is facing a self-imposed May 12 deadline over whether to uphold the 2015 nuclear agreement, which he long has criticized. The president has signaled he will pull out of the pact by the deadline unless it is revised, but he faces intense pressure from European allies not to do so.
“I will be announcing my decision on the Iran Deal tomorrow from the White House at 2:00pm,” Mr. Trump tweeted Monday.
The president has been the subject of an intense lobbying effort by American allies to maintain the agreement, with British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson making a last-ditch appeal to the administration in a visit to Washington this week. European leaders say they are open to negotiating a side agreement with Iran, but the existing framework must remain untouched for that to happen.
It was not immediately clear what Mr. Trump planned to announce Tuesday or whether he would announce the end of the deal or push for a renegotiation. However, European diplomats concluded Monday that they had failed to convince him that reneging on America’s commitment to the pact could cast the West into new confrontation with Tehran.
If the diplomats are correct, the announcement will be the most consequential national security decision of Mr. Trump’s 15 months in office — though it could be eclipsed in coming weeks by his direct negotiation with North Korea’s leader over surrendering its nuclear arsenal.
One senior European diplomat who has been deeply involved in trying to persuade Mr. Trump to stay in the deal told reporters on Monday the chance that the president would keep the agreement intact was “very small.”
Mr. Trump in October “decertified” the deal with Iran, but did not move to re-impose sanctions, known as a “snap-back.”
On Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would be willing not to abandon the nuclear deal even if the United States pulls out, providing the European Union offers guarantees that Iran would keep benefiting from the accord.
Mr. Rouhani said that “what we want for the deal is that it’s preserved and guaranteed by the non-Americans” — a reference to other signatories of the 2015 agreement.
U.S. officials and European allies share the conclusion that the deal, known formally as the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has halted Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. Mr. Trump has objected to a sunset provision that would allow Iran to restart some nuclear development in 2025.
Supporters of the deal argue that withdrawing from the JCPOA would undermine Mr. Trump’s push for North Korea, which has a far more advanced nuclear program than ever possessed by Iran, to denuclearize. Mr. Trump is planning on meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un within the next month.
Earlier Monday, Mr. Trump criticized John Kerry after reports that the former secretary of state has been promoting the Iran nuclear deal.
Mr. Trump said on Twitter: “The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!”
Mr. Kerry, who was a lead negotiator for the Obama administration on the Paris climate accord, has been promoting both agreements.
The Boston Globe reported Friday that Mr. Kerry had been privately meeting with foreign officials to strategize on how to keep the U.S. in the deal.
Mr. Kerry has met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. At a June 2017 public event in Oslo, Norway, they sat on the same panel with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and extolled the virtues of the nuclear deal.