NEW YORK, October 10. /TASS/. Iran is fulfilling the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to acknowledge this could weaken the US alliance with Europe and increase the positions of Iran, Russia and China, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman wrote in a New York Times article.
"The president’s unwillingness to accept the truth about the Iran deal - that it is working to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and that it is clearly in America’s national security interest - will have far-reaching consequences," Sherman said.
"For one, this decision will breach the trust of America’s partners and isolate our country. The deal was agreed to by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - along with Germany and the European Union. It was then ratified unanimously by the full Security Council. All of these parties, except the United States, want to keep the accord in place," she said.
The expert warned of "disastrous" repercussions for American foreign policy if Trump undermined the nuclear deal. "It will drive a wedge between the United States and Europe, weakening the critical trans-Atlantic relationship and increasing the influence of Iran, Russia and China," she stressed.
During the upcoming visit to Beijing in November, Trump "will find the Chinese less willing partners" on North Korea’s nuclear program, the expert noted.
"Indeed, we are likely to lose any possibility of dialogue with North Korea because Pyongyang will assume the United States will not honor its commitments, even on multilateral agreements," she said.
The Washington Post wrote on Thursday that Trump was expected to announce this week that he would "decertify" the Iran nuclear deal saying it does not meet the US national interests.
Iran and the P5+1 group of international mediators (Russia, the United Kingdom, China, the United States, France and Germany) signed a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program in July 2015 in Vienna. Under the deal, which started being implemented in January 2016, Iran undertakes to limit its nuclear activities and allow transparent international control of its nuclear program. Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will monitor nuclear facilities in Iran for the next 25 years.
In exchange, UN, US and European Union sanctions were to be gradually removed from Iran. The arms embargo imposed by UN Security Council will be kept in place for five years, ban for supplying ballistic missile technologies to Iran - for eight years. If any points of the agreement are violated by Iran, sanctions against the country will be renewed.