Nuke deal left in the lurch
Trump slams Iran and threatens 2015 agreement but EU slaps back
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump reignited the decades old US feud with Iran, vowing to confront the “fanatical regime” and throwing a landmark international nuclear agreement into doubt.
In a speech pocked with grievances dating to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Trump railed against the “Iranian dictatorship, its sponsorship of terrorism, and its continuing aggression in the Middle East and all around the world”.
And he threatened to rip up the 2015 agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear programme, saying it had failed to address Iranian subversion in its region and its illegal missile programme.
“It is under continuous review and our participation can be cancelled by me as president at any time,” he warned.
Trump’s bellicose message brought an instant rebuke from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who – also leaning heavily on past injustices – declared the United States was “more than ever against the Iranian people”.
But behind Trump’s hardline rhetoric was a subtle but significant presidential climbdown.
He stopped short of nixing a deal negotiated with European allies, China and Russia to lift sanctions against Teheran in return for Iranian curbs on uranium enrichment.
Instead he took a procedural step of “decertifying” the agree- ment, leaving its fate in the hands of the Republican- controlled Congress.
The US president said he supports efforts in Congress to work on new measures to address these threats without immediately torpedoing the broader deal.
“However, in the event we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated,” Trump said, in a televised address from the Diplomatic Room of the White House.
European leaders slapped back that notion, saying the agreement was not America’s alone.
In a cautious but unmistakable rebuke, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany said the deal remained in “our shared national security interest”.
“We encourage the US administration and Congress to consider the implications to the security of the US and its allies before taking any steps that might undermine” the deal.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson responded “to our friends and allies in Europe” by saying: “I think we have a real opportunity to address all the threats that are posed by Iran”.
Trump also backed away from designating Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terror group, a move that would have triggered slew of sanctions and an almost certain Iranian retribution.