WASHINGTON (JTA) — It’s “possible” that the United States will not remain in the Iran nuclear deal, President Donald Trump said.
“I believe they have broken the spirit of the agreement,” Trump told The Associated Press. “There is a spirit to agreements, and they have broken it.”
Asked by the AP whether that meant the United States would stick with the 2015 deal, which swapped sanctions relief for a rollback in Iran’s nuclear program, Trump said, “It’s possible that we won’t.”
Trump’s administration in recent weeks has delivered mixed messages about the agreement, which he reviled during his campaign as the “worst” he had ever encountered but never fully pledged to kill.
On April 19, the Trump administration affirmed in the morning that Iran was in compliance with the deal and in the afternoon said it would review its terms.
Critics of the deal say the sanctions relief allows Iran to spend toward backing terrorism and promoting instability in the region. Trump also is unhappy that Iran continues to test ballistic missiles, which is barred by U.N. Security Council resolutions but is not under the terms of the nuclear pact.
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