Washington: President Donald Trump will announce his decision on whether the US will pull out of the Iran nuclear accord on Tuesday, he wrote in a tweet.
“I will be announcing my decision on the Iran Deal tomorrow from the White House,” he wrote Monday afternoon.
Trump is weighing whether to continue waiving sanctions on Iran’s energy and banking sector that were lifted as part of the 2015 agreement in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear program.
The President is widely expected to decide against extending the sanctions waivers, and in doing so, effectively leave the nuclear deal. Trump excoriated the agreement, even before winning the White House, as the “worst deal ever” and promised to tear it up on his first day in office.
One European diplomat said it seems fairly clear that the administration will walk away from the deal, and described the chances that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the deal is formally known, will continue intact as “very small.”
“It’s pretty obvious to me that unless something changes in the next few days, I believe the President will not waive the sanctions,” the diplomat the press. “And that will have various consequences that I think we have yet fully to understand and spell out.”
The implications of a US departure from the agreement aren’t clear yet, but analysts have warned that it would send a message to other nations — particularly North Korea — about the reliability of the US as a negotiating partner.
Other analysts have pointed to the potential for a Middle East arms race if Iran also leaves the deal and re-starts its nuclear program and say it will be even harder to confront Iran’s regional activity if it does so. A decision to leave the deal also raises questions about the fate of at least four Americans held in Iran and the leverage Washington will have to help them.
Trump’s supporters argue that leaving the pact is necessary in order to confront Iran’s disruptive behavior in the region, including its support for Houthi rebels in Yemen, for the regime in Syria and for Hezbollah.
“If the President decides to leave the deal, it’s hardly the end of the world — or even bad,” said Jim Phillips, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “Instead, it should be seen as a necessary step to confront one of the deadliest threats Americans, Israelis, and Gulf Arabs face.”
