Iran-US relations: Trump imperils nuclear deal
President risks undoing one of most important diplomatic achievements of past decade
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has said Iran could abandon the nuclear deal “within hours” if the US imposes any more sanctions. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters
As the world frets about the threat of nuclear war in Korea, the landmark deal designed to prevent Iran developing its own nuclear capability is at greater risk of unravelling than at any point since it was signed two years ago. Agreed in July 2015 between Tehran and the so-called P5+1 – the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) and Germany – the deal imposed limits on Iran’s uranium enrichment programme and gave international inspectors intrusive access to the country’s nuclear sites. In exchange the EU, UN and US all committed to lifting sanctions they had imposed on Tehran for its nuclear programme. The deal was one of Barack Obama’s foreign policy successes as US president, holding out the promise that relations between Tehran and the West could be reset after decades of mutual hostility and suspicion.