On 8 May 2018, the United States under the first Trump administration announced its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The JCPOA is an agreement on Iran's nuclear program reached in July 2015 by Iran and the P5+1 or the E3+3 and the European Union. In a joint statement responding to the U.S. withdrawal, the leaders of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom said that the United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the nuclear deal remained the "binding international legal framework for the resolution of the dispute". Various countries, international organizations, and U.S. scholars have expressed regret about or criticized the withdrawal, while U.S. conservatives, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and their allies have supported it. The withdrawal caused concern in Iran due to its impact on the economy. On 17 May 2018, the European Commission announced its intention to implement the blocking statute of 1996 to declare U.S. sanctions against Iran illegal in Europe and ban European citizens and companies from complying with them. The commission also instructed the European Investment Bank to facilitate European companies' investment in Iran. The withdrawal led Iran to take actions contrary to the deal, including stockpiling roughly 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium. Amid negotiations on a potential nuclear deal, Israel and the United States under the second Trump administration launched the 2026 Iran war, citing the Iranian nuclear threat as a rationale.
Background In July 2015, China, the European Union, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States concluded an agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which provided that Iran's nuclear activities would be limited in exchange for reduced sanctions. According to the JCPOA, every 90 days the president of the United States would certify that Iran was adhering to the terms of the agreement, among other things. Leading up to the United States' withdrawal, the IAEA asserted that its inspectors had verified that Iran had implemented its nuclear-related commitments to the agreement. In a letter to then-congressman Mike Pompeo, U.S. State Department assistant secretary for legislative affairs Julia Frifield wrote that the agreement was a political commitment between the parties, "not a treaty or an executive agreement". The JCPOA ended some of the sanctions on Iran while suspending others, subject to waivers, including those of oil sanctions implemented in January 2012, which require periodic recertification. During his 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, Donald Trump made the renegotiation of the JCPOA one of his main foreign affairs campaign promises, saying at a rally that it would "be a totally different deal" if he won. Trump called the deal a disaster, "the worst deal ever", so terrible that it could lead to "a nuclear holocaust". The Trump administration issued certifications in April and July 2017 that Iran was complying with the deal. But in October 2017, Trump announced that the US would not make the certification provided for under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, saying that the suspension of sanctions was not "proportionate and appropriate". In October 2017, the Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times wrote that America's reputation as a major power would be undermined in the world's eyes if it reneged on a deal simply because of a transition in government. In May 2018, French president Emmanuel Macron warned Trump not to withdraw from the deal, telling Der Spiegel that doing so could lead to war. In an August 2017 National Review article, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton supported complete withdrawal from the JCPOA and rejected the idea that it could be fixed. As National Security Advisor, he pressed the president to withdraw from the JCPOA. In May 2018, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a presentation at the Israel Ministry of Defense titled "Iran Lied", which some analysts believed influenced Trump to pursue withdrawal. Trump announced just over a week later that the US would withdraw from the deal, calling the Iranian promises a lie. Jarrett Blanc, an Obama administration official, said after the withdrawal that the JCPOA had no formal provisions for withdrawal since it was an agreement between several countries, not a treaty, but a member of the deal could stop complying with its obligations. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran was in compliance with the JCPOA and there was no evidence otherwise. But David Makovsky, a Middle East scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that based on Netanyahu's evidence, Iran had not revealed all its research into nuclear weapons and thus was not in compliance.
Announcement
At 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. He called the agreement "a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made" and added, "[i]t didn't bring calm, it didn't bring peace, and it never will."
Reactions
Support United States: The Republican Party (GOP) supported Trump's decision to withdraw. US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that Trump "absolutely made the right decision". Secretary of State Mike Pompeo supported the withdrawal. National Security Adviser John Bolton supported the decision. Former vice president Dick Cheney supported the withdrawal. Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia supported and welcomed Trump's decision and "supports reinstating economic sanctions on the Iranian regime, which have been suspended under the nuclear deal", according to the official SPA news agency. Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a live televised address shortly after the announcement of U.S. withdrawal, said, "Israel fully supports President Trump’s bold decision today to reject the disastrous nuclear deal with the terrorist regime in Tehran."
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