US President Donald Trump on Monday defended his decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement, arguing that scrapping the deal stopped Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon years ago. The assertion came amid the raging armed conflict between Iran and the joint front of Israel and the US.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “If I didn’t terminate Obama’s horrendous Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA), Iran would have had a Nuclear Weapon three years ago.”
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, negotiated under former President Barack Obama, placed limits on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump withdrew the US from the pact in 2018, calling it flawed and overly generous to Tehran.
Trump described the agreement as “the most dangerous transaction we have ever entered into,” adding that “had it been allowed to stand, the World would be an entirely different place right now.”
He also took aim at his predecessors. “You can blame Barack Hussein Obama, and Sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump wrote, referring to former President Joe Biden.
Trump has long argued that his withdrawal from the JCPOA restored leverage over Iran and prevented it from rapidly advancing its nuclear programme.
Critics of the move, however, say the collapse of the deal removed international constraints and oversight mechanisms that had limited Iran’s uranium enrichment activities.
Iran has consistently denied seeking nuclear weapons, maintaining that its programme is intended for civilian energy purposes. Since Washington’s exit from the agreement, Tehran has expanded enrichment levels, drawing international concern and renewed debate in Washington over the future of diplomacy with Iran.
US-IRAN CONFLICT
On Monday, Israel and the US continued pounding Iran, in what Trump has described as a campaign that could stretch for weeks. He said operations were projected to last four to five weeks but made clear he was prepared “to go far longer than that,” signalling no immediate end to the conflict.
Amid fears of widening violence, the US Department of State has urged American citizens to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries due to escalating safety risks.
Trump has said US forces are determined to dismantle Iran’s missile capabilities, cripple its navy, block any path to a nuclear weapon and prevent Tehran from backing allied groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, which fired missiles at Israel on Monday, prompting retaliatory airstrikes.
MIDDLE EAST CRISIS TOLL
According to some estimates, at least 500 people, including six American service members, have been killed across the Middle East in the rapidly evolving crisis between Iran and its arch rivals, Israel and the US.
Iran’s retaliation to the coordinated US-Israeli strikes has, so far, involved firing several barrages of missiles at its Gulf neighbours hosting US military bases such as Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. Tehran also fired missiles at the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman.
(With inputs from agencies)
