Trump 'decided' on Iran deal
US President Donald Trump yesterday said that he had made his decision on whether or not the United States will remain in a 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers, but he declined to reveal it.
"I have decided," Trump told reporters when asked if he had made up his mind after having criticized the accord under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani yesterday defended the nuclear deal at the United Nations, saying it was an internationally-backed accord whose fate could not be decided by "one or two countries."
The 2015 deal was "overwhelmingly applauded by the international community and endorsed as part of Resolution 2231" adopted by the Security Council, Rouhani told the UN General Assembly.
"As such it belongs to the international community in its entirety and not only to one or two countries," he said.
In a pugnacious speech on Tuesday before the UN General Assembly annual gathering of world leaders, Trump called the accord "an embarrassment."
And his top diplomat Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the Iran nuclear deal must be changed if the United States is to remain in it.
Critics of the deal, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, worry that, once the main restrictions on Iran's nuclear program expire in 10 to 15 years, Tehran will be in a position to quickly develop an atomic weapon, if it wishes.
"Change it, or cancel it. Fix it, or nix it," Netanyahu said in his UN speech.
Netanyahu vowed to fight an "Iranian curtain" descending on the Middle East, pledging to prevent Tehran from ever establishing a permanent foothold in Syria.
Trump hinted in his speech to the annual gathering of world leaders that he may not recertify the agreement, negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama. "I don't think you've heard the last of it," he said.
The US president must decide by Oct 15 whether to certify that Iran is complying with the pact, a decision that could sink the deal. If he does not, the US Congress has 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions waived under the accord.
Russia is concerned by Trump questioning the Iran nuclear deal, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian reporters at the United Nations in comments published by his ministry on Wednesday.
"It's extremely worrying," Lavrov said.
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