Trump pulls out of Iran nuclear deal
WASHINGTON, May 8, 2018
US President Donald Trump said his country was pulling out of an international agreement aimed at stopping Tehran from obtaining a nuclear bomb and it will be reimposing economic sanctions on Iran.
The decision is likely to raise the risk of conflict in the Middle East, upset America’s European allies and disrupt global oil supplies, a Reuters report said.
“I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” Trump said at the White House. “In a few moments, I will sign a presidential memorandum to begin reinstating US nuclear sanctions on the Iranian regime. We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanctions.”
A CCN report said President Trump called the Iran deal "a great embarrassment to me as a citizen and to all citizens of the United States."
"A constructive deal could easily have been struck at the time. But it wasn’t," Trump said. "At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program."
The 2015 Iran deal, negotiated under former President Barack Obama gave Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear activities.
President Trump was asked by a reporter how withdrawing from the deal would make America safer. "This will make America much safer," Trump said, in response. "Thank you very much."
The 2015 deal, worked out by the US, five other international powers and Iran, eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear programme.
Trump says the agreement, the signature foreign policy achievement of Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, does not address Iran’s ballistic missile programme, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 nor its role in conflicts in Yemen and Syria.
Iran has ruled out renegotiating the agreement and threatened to retaliate, although it has not said exactly how, if Washington pulled out.
Meanwhile, on North Korea, Trump said President Trump said his secretary of state Mike Pompeo is currently en route Pyongyang to continue preparations for his upcoming summit with Kim Jong Un.
"Plans are being made, relationships are building," Trump said. Pompeo previously travelled to North Korea on Easter weekend for talks.
