World

Iran nuclear deal: Trump vows not to recertify agreement

October 13, 2017 4:21 pm

US President Donald Trump has condemned Iran as a “fanatical regime” and refused to continue certifying a landmark international nuclear deal.

He accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism and said he would deny the regime “all paths to a nuclear weapon”.

International observers say Iran has been in full compliance with the 2015 deal freezing its nuclear programme.

Article continues after advertisement

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the US was “more than ever isolated” and could not change the nuclear deal.

“As long as our rights are guaranteed, as long as our interests are served, as long as we benefit from the nuclear deal, we will respect and comply with the deal,” Mr Rouhani said.

Mr Trump said the deal was too lenient, and Iran had “committed multiple violations of the agreement”. Iran, he said, was spreading “death, destruction and chaos”.

It was “not living up to spirit of the deal”, he said, but receiving the benefit of sanctions relief regardless. His new strategy would fix that, he said.

The US reserved the right to leave the deal at any time, he warned, and would do so unless “satisfactory” changes were made.

Mr Trump had been under pressure at home and abroad not to scrap the deal, signed in July 2015 by Iran and the US, UK, France, China and Russia plus Germany.