Trump to pass judgement on Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday
President Donald Trump will reveal his decision on whether the US is to pull out of the Iran nuclear accord today according to a tweet he published on Monday.
“I will be announcing my decision on the Iran Deal tomorrow from the White House,” Trump wrote Monday afternoon in the uncharacteristically subdued tweet.
The president is widely expected to back out of the accords, which have waived sanctions against Iran’s energy and financial sectors in exchange for restrictions on the country’s nuclear programme, having branded the agreement as the "worst deal ever" during the run-up to his election in 2016.
Trump has argued that the agreement fails to tackle Iran’s ballistic missile programme or the country’s activities in the Middle East.
Despite the fact the deal was negotiated by the UK, France, Germany, China, Russia and the EU as well as the US, it is likely to fall apart if Washington pulls out.
A slew of big names have urged Trump to reconsider his stance on the accords with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel keen to impress on him the vital nature of the deal during visits to the US last month.
Macron suggested the negotiation of a second agreement but Iranian officials have been blunt in their refusal to renegotiate the terms of the current deal.
Over the weekend, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson even appeared on Fox & Friends, known to be one of the President’s favourite television shows, to express concern that alternative strategies to the accords would not be effective.
Johnson said: "If they do get a nuclear weapon, you're going to get an arms race in the Middle East. You're going to have the Saudis wanting one, the Egyptians wanting one, the Emiratis. It's already a very, very dangerous state at the moment, we don't want to go down that road. There doesn't seem to me at the moment to be a viable military solution."
Fears that the Trump administration may initiate military strikes against Iran have been stoked by the appointment of John Bolton, noted for his hawkish stance on Iran, as national security adviser.