Donald Trump is going to decertify the Iran deal unilaterally: report

The president may be considering decertifying the Iran nuclear deal, then letting Congress figure it out

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published September 21, 2017 9:11AM (EDT)

 (Getty/Ron Sach-Pool)
(Getty/Ron Sach-Pool)

President Donald Trump has "decided" on a policy regarding the Iran nuclear deal — and, if early reports are correct, he is heavily leaning toward drastically reshaping that cornerstone of modern American foreign policy.

Trump's current inclination is to decertify the Iran nuclear deal and then give Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose nuclear sanctions on that country that had previously been lifted, according to NBC News. While that is happening, Trump hopes to persuade various European nations that are part of the Iran nuclear deal to exert pressure on Iran to re-engage in talks over provisions that Trump finds problematic.

At the same time, the NBC News report indicated that Trump's mind had not been made up about the deal. In particular, it pointed out that Trump would be receptive to hearing from America's international allies who support the deal and fear pulling out would be a mistake.

Trump has also refused to share his decision with many of his top advisers, according to The Washington Post. He refused to discuss his stance with British Prime Minister Theresa May and has not shared it with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. According to the Post:

Tillerson said he had been surprised when Trump publicly announced he had reached a decision. The secretary told reporters it would now take some time to prepare to implement the decisions. He gave no hint as to the direction Trump would take, but repeated the president’s long-standing position that the deal does not address troubling non-nuclear behavior despite the hopes of those who negotiated it.


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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Barack Obama Donald Trump Iran Iran Nuclear Deal