President Donald Trump announced on Twitter on Monday afternoon that he will reveal his decision on whether or not to remain in the Iranian nuclear deal on Tuesday.
I will be announcing my decision on the Iran Deal tomorrow from the White House at 2 p.m. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2018
“I will be announcing my decision on the Iran Deal tomorrow from the White House at 2 p.m.,” the president tweeted.
While Trump did not provide any clues as to his decision, recent signs indicate that he will likely not renew the sanctions waiver on Iran, thereby effectively pulling the United States out of the 2015 pact.
On Jan. 12, Trump outlined his intentions to “fix the terrible flaws” of the Iran nuclear deal, giving U.S. and European negotiators a 120-day timetable to implement the changes, which include allowing inspections on military sites, an end to sunset clauses and addressing Iran’s testing of ballistic missiles.
However, it appears that the American and European negotiators have been unable to make the changes to the deal, while the other key signatories—Iran, Russia and China—are all opposed to any alterations.
In recent weeks, Trump has been visited by both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who lobbied the U.S. leader to remain in the deal. At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime opponent of the agreement, gave a public presentation last week that detailed new Israeli intelligence outlining Iran’s covert attempts at developing a nuclear arsenal.
Following the presentation, Trump tweeted that he was “100 percent right” about Iran’s intentions.
Earlier on Monday on Twitter, Trump criticized former Secretary of State John Kerry, who helped to negotiate the agreement in 2015, for reports that he has been promoting the deal. “The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!” tweeted the president.
The Boston Globe reported last week that Kerry has been holding private meetings with foreign officials, including Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, to strategize on how to keep America in the agreement.
