Trump aides planning for pullout from Iran nuke deal

WASHINGTON — Anticipating an unpredictable president’s next moves, U.S. officials have started actively planning for the likelihood that Donald Trump will announce next month that the U.S. is withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal.

But no one knows exactly what would happen next or how Iran would respond.

Still, with fewer than five weeks until President Donald Trump’s deadline, national security officials are exploring various “day after” scenarios. Those include how to sell a pullout as the correct strategy, how aggressively to reimpose U.S. sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the agreement and how to deal with Iranian and European fallout from such a step, according to officials, diplomats and outside advisers to the administration.

The planning is at an early stage but has taken on greater urgency as the clock ticks toward mid-May, when Trump has said he’ll walk away unless his concerns are addressed. Another catalyst is the anticipated arrival of two new Trump aides strongly opposed to the deal: Mike Pompeo and John Bolton.

Pompeo, the CIA director nominated for secretary of state, was briefed last week on the Iran deal by top State Department aides, including Brian Hook, the policy planning chief, and Andrew Peek, the deputy assistant secretary for Iran, U.S. officials said.

Both Pompeo and Bolton, who takes over next week as Trump’s national security adviser, have been highly critical of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, and their appointments seemed to signal that one of former President Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy achievements may soon be history.

Iran has said U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions would destroy the agreement and has threatened a range of responses, including immediately restarting nuclear activities currently barred under the deal.

U.S. sanctions that were lifted in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear program fall into several baskets, including some that can be restored by executive order and some that would require congressional action.

One option being considered by the Treasury Department, which enforces sanctions, would be to immediately snap back sanctions that don’t need action from Congress but delay their enforcement by four to six months, according to people familiar with the matter.