European leaders condemn Trump's decision on Iran
President Trump’s long-expected announcement on Friday that he would disavow the Iran nuclear deal was immediately condemned by European leaders, who view the accord as essential for averting another conflict in the Middle East at a time when the world is worried about tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
In an unusual joint statement, Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Emmanuel Macron of France said that they “stand committed” to the 2015 deal and that preserving it was “in our shared national security interest.”
“The nuclear deal was the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy and was a major step towards ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is not diverted for military purposes,” they said after Mr. Trump spoke on Friday, noting that the United Nations Security Council had unanimously endorsed the deal and that the International Atomic Energy Agency had confirmed Iran’s compliance with it.
“We encourage the U.S. Administration and Congress to consider the implications to the security of the U.S. and its allies before taking any steps that might undermine” the nuclear agreement, including reimposing sanctions on Iran, the leaders added.
But Saudi Arabia and Israel, which are both adversaries of Iran, welcomed Mr. Trump’s announcement that he would no longer certify the nuclear deal with Iran.
Mr. Trump’s decision does not terminate the agreement with Iran. Instead, it leaves it to Congress to decide whether to impose new sanctions on Iran — a step that would effectively trash the deal.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who has always opposed the agreement with Iran, said that Mr. Trump’s announcement created “an opportunity to fix this bad deal” and was a sign of Mr. Trump’s determination to “boldly confront Iran’s terrorist regime.”
Saudi Arabia, which has waged a proxy battle against Iran for supremacy in the region and was the first country Mr. Trump visited after taking office, said it welcomed what it called a “new U.S. strategy” toward Iran.
In his remarks on Friday, Mr. Trump warned that unless the nuclear agreement with Iran could be changed and made permanent — to prevent Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons — then he would terminate the deal.
Mr. Trump did not give a deadline. But under the current arrangement, Mr. Trump said, “Iran can sprint” toward the development of nuclear weapons when the deal’s restrictions expire.
Some of the prohibitions in the agreement are set to end in 2025, including limits on the number of its centrifuges. Iran, which has always maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, not for weapons, would not agree to a permanent freeze in its ability to enrich nuclear fuel.
That must be changed, Mr. Trump said, or he would scrap the deal altogether.
Iran has long resisted the idea of renegotiating the nuclear agreement in the West’s favor. Last month, its foreign minister rejected extending the length or conditions of the accord, saying that Iran would only consider changing the agreement if the concessions it has already made — including giving up nuclear fuel — were reconsidered.
The foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said that would mean Iran would retake possession of the stockpile of nuclear fuel it shipped to Russia when the accord took effect.
“Are you prepared to return to us 10 tons of enriched uranium?” Mr. Zarif said of the relinquished stockpile — one of Iran’s biggest concessions.
Iran has accused the United States of violating the letter and spirit of the deal by imposing additional sanctions against it, and its mission on Friday warned that Iran might itself back away from the deal.
“Iran has many options on how to proceed and if necessary will terminate its commitment regarding this issue,” the statement said, without elaborating.
European leaders expressed deep concern about Mr. Trump’s decision. Like Russia and China, they have long warned the United States not to back away from the agreement.
Before Mr. Trump’s announcement on Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia voiced alarm at the prospect of Mr. Trump’s undermining the deal, which Iran negotiated with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters on Friday that an American withdrawal from the deal “undoubtedly will affect the atmosphere of predictability, security, stability and nonproliferation in the world,” according to Tass, the Russian news agency.
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