President Trump to decertify Iran nuclear deal in major shift in US policy

US President Donald Trump will strike a blow against the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement in defiance of international support for it on Friday, choosing not to certify that Tehran is complying with the deal in a major reversal of US policy.

Trump will make the announcement in a speech at 12:45 pm EDT (1645 GMT) that will detail a more confrontational approach to Iran over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and its financial and military support for extremist groups in the Middle East, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters.

Trump will also give the US Treasury Department broad authority to impose economic sanctions against people and entities in the Iranian military, the Iran Revolutionary Guard, in response to what Washington calls its efforts to destabilize and undermine its opponents in the Middle East.

Trump's decision to decertify the nuclear deal will not withdraw the United States from the agreement, which was negotiated by the United States and other world powers during the administration of former President Barack Obama.

Trump will attempt to persuade the US Congress to approve some separate measures to toughen US policy toward Iran.
Tillerson acknowledged the strategy may not work.
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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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