Trump’s Iran gambit to keep ‘worst deal ever’ intact for now

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump is weighing a new strategy to confront Iran’s nuclear ambitions that would leave a 2015 agreement intact for now but ask Congress to toughen a law overseeing the Islamic Republic’s compliance with the accord, according to three administration officials.
The goal behind the strategy, which Trump is expected to announce next week, would be to present a unified front from the administration and Congress to European allies, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified discussing an issue on which the president hasn’t announced a final decision. The officials declined to say if Trump would also “decertify” Iran’s compliance with the deal, a decision he has to make every 90 days under US law.
Trump has railed against the accord, which was brokered during the Obama administration, as the “worst deal ever” and an “embarrassment to the United States.”
Asked in an interview broadcast if he would pull the US out of the Iranian nuclear deal, Trump said, “I won’t say that.”
“A few days from now, almost a week and a half to be exact, you’ll see,” Trump said in an interview with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
The segment was taped Friday at the White House. Trump repeated his view that the 2015 deal with Iran was “terrible.”
Before meeting with senior military leaders at the White House, Trump told reporters, “We must put an end to Iran’s aggression and nuclear ambitions.” Saying that Iran hasn’t “lived up the spirit of the nuclear agreement,” Trump said “you’ll be hearing about Iran very shortly.”
But US allies that are part of the accord, as well as China and Russia, say it’s been effective. They point to assessments by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran is meeting requirements to curb its nuclear programme.
That hasn’t persuaded Trump. Although the president has twice certified Iran’s compliance with the agreement, which lifted a range of economic sanctions in exchange for restrictions on the nuclear programme, he signalled in an interview with the Wall Street Journal he wouldn’t do so again before an approaching October 15 deadline.

‘Unified Team’
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders gave a hint about the new approach in a briefing with reporters, saying Trump will propose “a comprehensive strategy on how to deal with Iran” and will have “a unified team behind him supporting that effort.”
Staying in the accord but decertifying Iran’s compliance would meet a standard set publicly this week by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. He told congressional committees that it’s in the US interest to stay in the Iran deal but that decertification is a “distinct” matter.
The approach the officials mapped out is similar to one proposed by Republican Senator Tom Cotton this week. Cotton, a longtime opponent of the accord, suggested Trump could “decertify” Iran’s compliance with the deal without leaving the agreement, citing the Islamic Republic’s continued ballistic missile tests and its meddling in countries from Syria to Yemen.
Cotton added that he wouldn’t immediately seek a “snapback” of sanctions eased by the deal. Doing so would be considered a breach of the agreement, allowing Iran to reconstitute its nuclear programme.
“Congress and the president, working together, should lay out how the deal must change and, if it doesn’t, the consequences Iran will face,” Cotton, who’s close to Trump’s national security advisers, said.
It’s not clear, though, that Congress, where Republicans have only a narrow majority in the Senate, would be able to approve any changes to the law.