Iran dealings send message to North Korea

Since entering the Oval Office, President Trump twice certified that Iran is complying with the terms of the agreement to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. Last week, he declared he would not do so again. What changed? Evidently, the president no longer could accept the gap between certification and his denunciations of the deal on the campaign trail and recently at the United Nations . ...

Listen to the president, and the suggestion surfaces that somehow Iran has been paid to join the agreement. Actually, the exchange goes: Iran shuts down its nuclear program, and in return gains access to its own assets long frozen as part of the international pressure applied to bring its negotiators to the table.

Iran already has regained a significant share of its assets. If the president gets his way in scrapping the deal, Iran would have its money without having to meet the nuclear terms. Now that would be one-sided.

Germany, Britain and France responded as one to the president’s choice, citing at the top the growing isolation of the United States. The president has harmed the country’s trustworthiness, the move embarrassingly and dangerously at odds with reality, diminishing American influence and thus power. Consider the conclusions North Korea is invited to draw. Why enter negotiations and reach an agreement if the Americans are not willing to keep their word?