Trump Rips Up a 'Decaying and Rotten Deal' With Iran
Updated at 4:18 p.m. ET
President Trump announced Tuesday that he would reimpose nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, setting the stage for a long-expected dismantling of the Obama-era nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.
“I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” he said. “In a few moments, I will sign a presidential memorandum to begin reinstating U.S. nuclear sanctions on the Iranian regime.”
On the face of it, the announcement goes much further than had been expected. Observers had expected Trump to decline to waive only the most immediate set of sanctions related to Iran’s oil trade—the sanctions that were specifically at play with an upcoming May 12 deadline for Trump to waive them, giving America’s European allies time to find a fix that would placate the president.
But the White House in a subsequent statement said companies “doing business in Iran will be provided a period of time to allow them to wind down operations in or business involving Iran” or else be in violation of U.S. law and face sanctions. The move is especially striking because even Trump administration officials
