President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal is a major setback to U.S. negotiating credibility and will complicate efforts to reach an agreement with Pyongyang over its own more advanced weapons programme, analysts say.
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Iran re-emerged as a major oil exporter in 2016 after global sanctions against it were lifted in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
Trump also has created more uncertainty in a region where things are already too uncertain.
“The goal is to prevent Iran from ever developing or acquiring a nuclear weapon and the detail beyond that is something we are going to have to flesh out”, the official added.
President Trump has always been critical of the Obama-era agreement, calling it an “embarrassment” and “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into”.
Senators asked Mattis if the USA withdrawal from the deal presaged a military conflict with Iran. He added that if the deal continued to stand, there would soon be a nuclear arms race in West Asia. Mnuchin said he didn’t expect oil prices to rise sharply, forecasting that other producers will step up production.
The EU has policy tools available that it’s used in the past to protect companies from US sanctions – but they’re often outweighed, in the eyes of executives, by the risk of losing access to the world’s biggest economy.
Trump, who repeatedly criticized the accord during his presidential campaign, said Tuesday that documents recently released by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed Iran had attempted to develop a nuclear bomb in the previous decade, especially before 2003.
The president was also asked whether he deserved the Nobel Peace Price for brokering a face-to-face meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
What about the other signatories? But by taking this decision Trump has ignored advice against such a move from his key European allies as well as top US Democratic leaders.
Several European leaders voiced disappointment over the USA decision on Tuesday, while close allies to Trump, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, cheered on the decision.
Nearly as soon as Trump’s announcement was complete, officials from the six other countries involved in the deal ― including Iran – began denouncing the president’s decision, restating their intentions to follow through with the agreement, with or without Trump’s involvement. His office agrees with Cotton, that the deal had several flaws, “including the fact that Iran was not required to destroy a single centrifuge and that adequate verification measures were sorely lacking”.
“I have ordered the foreign ministry to negotiate with the European countries, China and Russian Federation in coming weeks”.
The South Asian country remained a big buyer of Iranian oil even during previous Western sanctions, though it had to cut purchases to win some waivers as the trade was mostly done in U.S. dollars.
Trump’s decision may not crimp Iranian oil exports in the short run.
What does this mean for India?
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President Hassan Rouhani of Iran said on Tuesday that his country would continue to abide by the agreement, but Ayatollah Khamenei, the spiritual leader for the past 29 years, wields the ultimate power in the nation. The relationship between the two goes beyond energy. Besides, pacts on health and medicines, agriculture and trade promotion were also signed. Russia’s acting foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said that Russian Federation remains committed to the pact, while France’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, insisted the deal was not dead.
