President moves closer to decertifying Iran accord

WASHINGTON — President Trump appears on track to decertify the Iran nuclear deal next week, a decision that will open an unpredictable debate in Congress and could lead to an unraveling of the landmark agreement.

Trump is planning to announce next week that the Iran deal is not in the U.S. national security interest, and that additional sanctions should be imposed on Tehran to prevent it from restarting its nuclear program at some point in the future, according to a person briefed by the White House who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Aides are drafting a harsh speech that Trump is planning to deliver in which he will explain his decision, according to people briefed on the president’s thinking.

Under a U.S. law, the White House faces an Oct. 15 deadline to certify to Congress whether Iran is in compliance with the accord, and whether the agreement remains in the U.S. national security interest.

The law was passed in 2015 when the Obama administration and five other major powers were completing a deal with Iran that required it to destroy or disable its nuclear infrastructure in exchange for easing of international sanctions. The U.N. Security Council has backed the accord.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency, has repeatedly determined that Tehran is meeting its obligations under the deal, and U.S. intelligence agencies have reached the same conclusion.

That leaves national security, a much vaguer standard, as the apparent basis for Trump’s decision on decertification.

Trump repeatedly has threatened to scrap the Iran deal. He ordered an interagency review of U.S. policy toward Iran soon after he took office.

He and other critics insist that Tehran’s support for militant groups in Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon, its ballistic missile program and other destabilizing actions should be restricted.

The 2015 pact focused only on blocking Iran’s ability to someday build a nuclear bomb, not its other activities.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress on Tuesday that the accord remains in the U.S. national security interest. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also voiced support for the deal, saying it had made the nation safer.