‘Total termination’ of Iran deal possible
Trump hints situation can go either direction
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday renewed his threat to fully withdraw the United States from the landmark Iran nuclear deal, while holding out the possibility that fixes to the accord might prevent an American pullout.
Justifying his decision last week to decertify the 2015 pact under U.S. law, Trump said the United States had been taken advantage of in negotiations the Obama administration conducted.
“I feel strongly about what I did,” Trump told reporters Monday at a meeting of his Cabinet in the
White House. “I’m tired of being taken advantage of as a nation. This nation has been taken advantage of for many, many years, for many decades, frankly, and I’m tired of watching it. But the Iran deal was something that I felt had to be done.”
Lawmakers now have 60 days to snap back sanctions on Iran that had been suspended, keep the status quo or, as the Trump administration has suggested, amend or replace the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.
At the same time, the administration is pressing the other nations in the nuclear agreement to fix what Trump believes are fatal flaws, including the expiration of some restrictions on nuclear activity under so-called “sunset provisions.” In addition to Iran, the deal’s other parties are Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union.
Trump referred to the lobbying effort with Congress and the other governments as “Phase 2.” He said a failure to achieve either or both could lead him to pull out.
“We’ll see what Phase 2 is. Phase 2 might be positive, and it might be very negative. It might be a total termination. That’s a very real possibility. Some would say that’s a greater possibility. But it also could turn out to be very positive. We’ll see what happens.”