Trump Plans to Withdraw U.S. From “Defective” Iran Nuclear Deal

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, speaks about tax reform on Wednesday September 27, 2017. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, right, speaks in a campaign rally for May 19, 2017.

President Donald Trump announced plans to withdraw the U.S. from the “defective” Iran nuclear deal, saying it failed to prevent Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Speaking in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, President Trump said the agreement negotiated with the previous administration “was a lie.”

“I am announcing today the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” he said, “The Iran deal is defective at its core.”

Sources tell People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) that the decision will start a 90-day countdown to the restoration of sanctions, though it was unclear which sanctions lifted will be restored. Regardless, immediately after the sanctions are re-imposed, the U.S. effectively would be out of the deal.

“At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction, that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful, nuclear energy program,” President Trump added. “Today, we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie.”

If the President takes a more limited approach over imposing strict sanctions, it could leave French President Emmanuel Macron and other U.S. allies more opportunity to remain in the agreement. Mr. Macron tried to convince Mr. Trump to remain in the nuclear deal, which his predecessor touted as a great achievement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week a huge archive of stolen plans for the Iranian nuclear program. He accused Iran of lying for years about its efforts to build a nuclear weapon. Israeli spies seized the documents from a secret warehouse in Tehran during an overnight raid in January.

Iranian leaders had deceived the international nuclear agency when they insisted their nuclear program was for peaceful purposes, a senior Israeli official said. However, even with this deception, the deal is such that the Iranians didn’t technically violate it.

“In theory, the so-called Iran deal was supposed to protect the United States and our allies from the lunacy of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a weapon that will only endanger the survival of the Iranian regime,” President Trump said. “In fact, the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and over time reach the brink of a nuclear breakout.”

Once sanctions are re-imposed, the U.S. effectively would be out of the deal.