Trump is going to make a huge mistake on the Iran deal

President Trump is expected this week to refuse to recertify that Iran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal, a milestone diplomatic agreement that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Mr Trump seems poised to take that action despite the reality that Iran is not violating the terms of the deal. In fact, his key national security cabinet officers have publicly said that Iran is meeting its commitments. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is charged with monitoring and verifying the deal, has issued eight reports over the past two years echoing these conclusions.

Instead, the president seems prepared to argue that the deal is no longer in the United States’ vital national security interest because of Iran’s other activities in the Middle East, including its support for terrorism, its meddling in Syria and Yemen, and its threats to Israel’s security.

The Trump administration is right that Iranian behaviour destabilises the region, but wrong when it says that such behaviour contradicts the “spirit” of the agreement and that he is therefore justified in refusing to certify Iran’s compliance. In fact, Iran’s troubling foreign policy is precisely why the deal was necessary in the first place: An Iran armed with a nuclear weapon would be far more threatening to regional and global security.
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Iran President Hassan Rouhani vows to never violate nuclear deal

Iran will never breach the nuclear deal it signed with major powers, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed.

Rouhani made the remarks in a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister's Special Envoy Masahiko Koumura on Wednesday, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The Iranian leader said the nuclear deal, also known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed in 2015 by Iran with the US, Russia, Britain, China and France plus Germany, was an important international accord.

"Today after the implementation of the JCPOA, we should not allow violating the deal," Rouhani said.

He pointed out that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has verified Iran's commitment to JCPOA for several times, while the US has not been fully committed to the deal.

"The US is trying to make a media campaign against international cooperation," Rouhani said.

Iran spares no efforts in establishing stability and security in the region, he added.

In the wake of the economic sanctions imposed recently by the US government led by President Donald Trump, there have been worries about possible US termination of the nuclear deal with Iran.
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The mask is off: US President Donald Trump is seeking war with Iran

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Something extraordinary has happened in Washington. President Donald Trump has made it clear, in no uncertain terms and with no effort to disguise his duplicity, that he will claim that Tehran is cheating on the nuclear deal by October — the facts be damned.

In short, the fix is in. Trump will refuse to accept that Iran is in compliance with the international pact and thereby set the stage for a military confrontation. His advisers have even been kind enough to explain how they will go about this. Rarely has a sinister plan to destroy an arms control agreement and pave the way for war been so openly telegraphed.

The unmasking of Trump’s plans to sabotage the nuclear deal began a few weeks ago when he reluctantly had to certify that Iran indeed was in compliance with its end of the deal. Both the US intelligence as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency had confirmed Tehran’s fair play. But Trump threw a tantrum in the Oval Office and berated his national security team for not having found a way to claim Iran was cheating.

According to Foreign Policy, the adults in the room — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, and National Security Adviser H R McMaster — eventually calmed Trump down, but only on the condition that they double down on finding a way for the president to blow up the deal by October.
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