Former President Barack Obama strongly pushed back against President Donald Trump’s Tuesday decision to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.
Pres. Obama: “I believe that the decision to put the JCPOA at risk without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake. Without the JCPOA, the United States could eventually be left with a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East.” pic.twitter.com/yDV0YrYqOe
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 8, 2018
Trump announced the U.S. decision to withdraw Tuesday, saying, “This was a horrible deal that should never, ever have been made.” Trump will reimpose devastating economic sanctions on Iran in a bid to force the regime back to the negotiating table for a new agreement
The president has long railed against the 2015 nuclear agreement, noting its lack of a perpetual ban on a nuclear program and how it fails to address the Islamic Republic’s malign activity across the middle east. The agreement was a signature foreign policy achievement of the Obama administration.
Obama declared that “walking away from the JCPOA turns our back on America’s closest allies and an agreement that our country’s leading diplomats, scientists, and intelligence professionals negotiated.”
“In a democracy, there will always be changes in policies and priorities from one Administration to the next,” he continued. “But the consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America’s credibility, and puts us at odds with the world’s major powers.”
Obama added he believes Trump’s “decision to put the JCPOA at risk without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake.”
“Without the JCPOA, the United States could eventually be left with a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East.”