The U.S. Pulls Out of the Iran Nuclear Deal

President Trump announced Tuesday that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. 

“This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made,” Trump said at the White House in announcing his decision. “It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace, and it never will.”

The agreement—signed in 2015 by the U.S., Iran, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China—was designed to halt Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions that had crippled Iran’s economy. Among other things, the deal required Iran to ship most of its nuclear materials out of the country and allow international inspectors to regularly monitor all aspects of its nuclear program.

Trump’s decision to leave the agreement unravels the signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, President Barack Obama. It also fulfills Trump’s campaign pledge to dismantle the pact, which he has called the “worst deal ever.” 

U.S. allies reacted to the announcement with dismay. 

“France, Germany, and the United Kingdom regret the U.S. decision to get out of the Iranian nuclear deal,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said in a post on Twitter shortly after Trump’s announcement. “The international regime against nuclear proliferation is at stake.”

Obama and other supporters of the agreement have long said that it’s our best hope for preventing Iran from building nuclear weapons. But critics, including President Trump, say the deal isn’t tough enough and that Iran’s leaders can’t be trusted to keep up their end of the bargain. (International inspectors, however, have found no evidence of major violations.) 

The United States is now preparing to reinstate all sanctions on Iran that it had waived as part of the nuclear accord—and impose additional economic penalties as well.

The U.S., Iran, and the other nations involved spent about two years hammering out the nuclear deal. It focused strictly on the Islamic nation’s nuclear weapons development. The agreement prohibits Iran from actions related to making nuclear weapons for more than 15 years. In return, the U.S. and the United Nations lifted economic sanctions that had been devastating to Iran’s economy because they stopped any country that did business with the U.S. from investing in Iran.

Democrats were quick to renounce Trump’s decision to pull out of the deal.

“The last thing America and the world need right now is a new nuclear threat,” said Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, in response to the president’s announcement. “Breaking this deal increases the danger that Iran will restart its nuclear weapons program, which threatens our ally, Israel, and destabilizes the entire Middle East. . . . This is a mistake of historic proportions.”

But many Republican lawmakers expressed strong support for President Trump’s decision. Critics of the deal say the agreement was flawed from the start. In addition to most restrictions ending in 2023, the deal’s strict focus on nuclear weapons did not prevent Iran from engaging in other dangerous behavior, they say. That has left the door open for Iran to continue supporting Hezbollah and Hamas, two groups the U.S. considers terrorist organizations. The country also backs Syria’s authoritarian president, Bashar al-Assad, in that nation’s bloody civil war.

“My own view is it’s a flawed deal, and we can do better,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Trump’s decision, while widely expected, plunges America’s relations with European allies into deep uncertainty. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have committed to staying in the deal. That raises the prospect of a diplomatic and economic clash with key allies as the United States reimposes stringent sanctions on Iran—along with the possibility of increased tensions with Russia and China, which also are parties to the agreement.

Trump’s decision could affect much more than just the nuclear deal, experts say. The international reputation of the U.S. may be on the line, especially because its major allies disagree with Trump’s move. 

Experts also fear that backing out of the agreement may make it harder for the U.S. to negotiate other international deals in the future. For example, President Trump is set to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un this summer about dismantling the Asian’s country’s nuclear program.

Trump, however, dismissed that concern. He told reporters that his expected summit with Kim will take place soon and that exiting the Iran deal is simply proof that he keeps his promises. 

He called on Iran’s leaders to come back to the bargaining table to forge a new deal, although they have said in the past that they have no intention of doing so.

“It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement,” Trump said. “The Iranian deal is defective at its core.” 

With reporting by Mark Landler of The New York Times. 

1) Why did President Trump decide to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal?

2) How have U.S. allies responded to his announcement?

3) What are some of the concerns of those who favored remaining in the deal?

4) What are some of the reasons critics of the Iran deal give for opposing it?