President Donald Trump struck a blow against the 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Friday, defying both US allies and adversaries by refusing to formally certify that Tehran is complying with the accord even though international inspectors say it is.
Warning that he might ultimately terminate the agreement, Trump’s move was a major change in US foreign policy at a time when his administration is also in a crisis with North Korea over that country’s nuclear ambitions.
However, Trump appears to have been left isolated as major global powers including the traditional US allies have refused to agree the US stand on the issue.
The UK, France and Germany responded that the pact was “in our shared national security interest,” reported the BBC. The EU said that it was “not up to any single country to terminate” a “working” deal.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the US was “more isolated than ever”. He said, “Can a president annul a multilateral international treaty on his own? Apparently he doesn’t know that this agreement is not a bilateral agreement solely between Iran and the United States.”
It was the second time in two days that Trump took aim at the legacy of his predecessor Barack Obama after signing an executive order on Thursday to weaken the Democratic former president’s signature healthcare reform.
Hailed by Obama as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal was also signed by China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union.
But Trump says it was too lenient on Tehran and effectively left the fate of the deal up to the US Congress which might try to modify it or bring back U.S. sanctions previously imposed on Iran.
The Iran Nuclear Deal was signed in 2015 between Iran and six international powers – the UK, the US, Russia, France, Germany, and China. It imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in return for easing of international sanctions.