President Trump Describes Obama’s Nuclear Deal With Iran As ‘Horrible One-Sided Deal’

President Donald Trump has described the American nuclear deal which the government of Barak Obama entered into with Iran as a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made, even as he pulled the country out of the deal.

Trump said: “this was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made,” Mr. Trump said at the White House in announcing his decision. “It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace, and it never will.”

In announcing the withdrawal from the deal today, Tuesday, President Trump made clear that his patience with the deal had worn thin.

As a result of the withdrawal, the United States is now preparing to reinstate all sanctions it had waived as part of the nuclear accord, and impose additional economic penalties as well.

The withdrawal fulfills one of President Trump’s oft-repeated campaign promises, and came despite intense personal lobbying by European leaders and frantic attempts to craft fixes to the deal that would satisfy him.

President Trump’s announcement, though long anticipated and widely telegraphed, is believed to be capable of plunging America’s relations with European allies into deep uncertainty.

Trump’s decision capped a frantic four-day period in which American and European diplomats made a last-ditch effort to bridge their differences and preserve the agreement.

On Friday, Pompeo called his counterparts in Europe to tell them that Mr. Trump was planning to withdraw, but that he was trying to win a two-week reprieve for the United States and Europe to continue negotiating.

Pompeo, people familiar with the talks said, suggested that he favored a so-called soft withdrawal, in which Mr. Trump would pull out of the deal but hold off on reimposing some of the sanctions.

On Saturday, the State Department’s chief negotiator, Brian Hook, consulted with European diplomats to try to break a deadlock over the so-called “sunset provisions,” under which the restrictions on Iran’s ability to produce nuclear fuel for civilian use expire after 15 years.

The Europeans had already agreed to a significant compromise: to re-impose sanctions if there was a determination that the Iranians were within 12 months of producing a nuclear weapon. But officials said that still did not satisfy Mr. Trump, and the Europeans were not willing to go any farther.

By Monday, the White House began informing allies that Mr. Trump was going to withdraw from the deal and re-impose oil sanctions and secondary sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran.

Trump has also instructed the Treasury Department to develop additional sanctions against Iran, a process that could take several weeks.

Under the financial sanctions, European companies will have between 90 days and 180 days to wind down their operations in Iran, or they will run afoul of the American banking system. The oil sanctions will require European and Asian countries to reduce their imports from Iran.

Source: New York Times. [myad]