There were many speculations as to whether US President Donald Trump will pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, and it has finally happened.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday scrapped the Iran nuclear deal signed by his predecessor Barack Obama and re-imposed sanctions on Teheran, saying the agreement had not prevented it from its quest for nuclear weapons.
“I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” Trump said in a televised address from the White House.
Trump said he is ready, willing and able to renegotiate a nuclear deal that would definitively kill Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and end what he called its sponsorship of terror in the middle east.
In a withering takedown of the previous Obama administration and its conclusion of Iran deal with the help of Washington European allies, Trump said even if Iran complied with the agreement it would still leave Teheran on the verge of nuclear weapons, so poorly was the deal negotiated.
”If I allow this deal to stay, it will set off a nuclear arms race in the middle east. If the deal cannot be fixed, the US could no longer be a party to it,” Trump said in a statement he read out on television inside the White House, maintaining ”we cannot prevent an Iran nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotting structure of this agreement.”
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Asserting that he was reinstating and instituting the ”highest level of sanction,” Trump also warned that any nation that helps Iran would also be subjected to sanctions.
”Today’s action sends a critical message. The US never makes empty threats…when I make promises I keep them,” he warned.
European leaders and officials have warned Trump and his team that Tehran could set off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East if it restarts its uranium enrichment program, but the US President remained unmoved as he nixed the deal that took years to negotiate. He ignored pleas from leaders of France, Germany, and Britain while junking the agreement.
The former President Barak Obama too had condemned the scrapping of the deal. He described Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the Iran nuclear deal as “misguided” and a “serious mistake.”
“The reality is clear. The JCPOA is working,” Obama said in a statement, referring to the deal his administration brokered in 2015. “That is a view shared by our European allies, independent experts, and the current US secretary of defence.”
“That is why today’s announcement is so misguided,” he added. “I believe that the decision to put the JCPOA at risk without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake.”
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UAE ACCEPTS TRUMP’S DEAL
The UAE has announced its support for Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear agreement with Iran, welcoming his strategy in this regard.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation called on the international community and countries involved in the nuclear agreement to respond to Trump’s decision to rid the Middle East from nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in order to maintain international security and stability.
CONSEQUENCES OF SCRAPPING THE DEAL
The immediate consequence of scrapping the deal will centre on Iran’s next move. It will also raise questions on what is Washington’s word worth if international agreements are not honoured by succeeding administration that has made electoral pledges, sometimes driven by ideological or personal choices and piques.
Although the scrapping casts a shadow on the developments in the Korean peninsula, where North Korea has signaled its intention to can its nuclear program in return for economic benefits, Trump indicated things were on track and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on his way to the region to set up his meeting with Kim Jong Un.
Pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal was one of Trump’s campaign promises, among several that were also aimed at erasing the legacy of his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, for whom agreement as a signal foreign policy achievement.
Trump never really went into the details of the agreement other than to consistently call it a “disaster.” He also called it “insane” “horrible “the worst deal ever,” among other epithets, and maintained the previous administration was led by “stupid” people who had been fooled.
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Iranian leader Rouhani has warned the US will have ”historic remorse” for pulling out of the deal while suggesting that so long as Europe guarantees that his country’s interests will be protected.
“If we can get what we want from a deal without America, then Iran will continue to remain committed to the deal,” Rouhani has been quoted as telling by the official daily newspaper of the government of Iran, while adding, “What Iran wants is our interests to be guaranteed by non-American signatories.”
Meanwhile, the Iranian President said he has ordered foreign minister to negotiate with other countries in the nuclear deal.
Aides of Trump was expected to wait until closer to Saturday, when the May 12 deadline for issuing a waiver is due, but he reportedly advanced the scrapping so as not to impede next week’s opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem, another move that is expected to cause jitters in the Middle East.
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