The Iran deal is defective at its core. The United States will withdraw from the
Iran nuclear deal.
Trump has been saying he wants to exit the Iran nuclear deal
for a long time.
A deal that has so far prevented Iran from developing nuclear
weapons.
The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises,
I keep them.
This is a massive reversal of US foreign policy with far-reaching
consequences.
So why does Trump hate the deal? What exactly does he want and how
did we get here?
This was something that President Obama, when he took office, said
was his priority and when it was signed in 2015 this was the high mark of his
presidency.
It's also interestingly something that the US had been involved
in for decades.
When the Shah was in power in Iran the US had helped him
develop a civilian nuclear program.
There was concern decades later that the
new government of Iran was gonna try to take that program and develop a nuclear
weapon.
This deal, the deal that President Trump just pulled out of, was the world's
attempt to prevent war and to get Iran to stop that pursuit of a weapon without
forcing it to.
So that's ultimately how we got to the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action,
the formal name for the Iran deal, signed not just by Iran and the
United States, but also the UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the European Union.
At its broadest, the deal imposed a set of restrictions on how Iran
developed nuclear capabilities in exchange for the U.S.. reducing economic
sanctions.
Now the way the JCPOA was structured the president recertified it
every 90 days or those sanctions would kick back in.
Trump had threatened this
outcome for months but is just now enacting it.
He thinks the Iranians can't be trusted, he thinks the deal is not strict enough,
and he thinks that Iran isn't abiding by the spirit of the deal because they're
doing things like develop long-range missiles.
The thing is three of Trump's
own top officials were very much in favor of the deal but only one still
holds their office.
If we can determine that this is in our best interest
then clearly we should stay with it.
Americans agree with the Secretary of
Defense -- a recent poll shows a majority of respondents back the agreement
including 68 percent of Democrats, 51 percent of Independents, and even a slim
plurality of Republicans, 46 percent, supported the deal while 42 percent
opposed it.
And America's allies strongly urged the US and Trump to stay committed
to the deal as well.
What do you have as a better option?
I don't see it.
What is the what-if scenario or your plan B?
I don't have any plan before
nuclear are against against Iran.
We are of the opinion that the JCPOA is a first
step but Trump believes he can negotiate better terms.
They are going to want to
make a new and lasting deal, one that benefits all of Iran and the Iranian
people.
The original deal imposed strict limits and monitoring of Iran's nuclear
program.
Iran was forced to get rid of the vast majority of the uranium it had
already enriched, as well as get rid of most of the centrifuges that it used to
enrich that uranium.
Under the deal Iran also couldn't enriched uranium past the
threshold for producing nuclear energy, which is significantly lower than the
threshold from medical uranium and weapons-grade uranium.
The UN's nuclear
agency has verified that Iran complied with the deal which is also what makes
the U.S. leaving so significant, especially right now on the cusp of
negotiations with North Korea over its own nuclear program.
In fact at this very
moment secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my
upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-Un.
But here's the thing: if you're the
North Korean government and especially if you're Kim Jong-Un and you're
watching what just happened with the Iran deal, why would you believe that if
you struck a deal with President Trump that the next president would stick to it?
If you've just seen literally the United States tear up the previous deal
they'd signed with the country to get that country to give up its nuclear
program and that's why President Trump's decision to plow Iran deal is so
dangerous.
Europe believes the deal works.
European companies are doing business
with Iran.
So this isn't just a blow diplomatically it's also a blow
financially to many of our closest allies around the world.
Mr. President, how does this make America safer?
How does this make America safer?
Thank you very much. This will make America much safer.