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By John Haltiwanger
Breaking News Writer
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Iran's supreme leader has warned that his country would "shred" the landmark 2015 nuclear deal if the U.S. withdraws from it. His remark followed President Donald Trump decertifying the deal last Friday, kicking to Congress the decision on whether to remain in the accord.
"I don't want to waste my time on answering the rants and whoppers of the brute [U.S.] president," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said while speaking to students in Tehran, Reuters reports.
"Trump's stupidity should not distract us from America's deceitfulness.... If the U.S. tears up the deal, we will shred it.... Everyone should know that once again America will receive a slap in its mouth and will be defeated by Iranians."
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The 2015 nuclear deal—involving the U.S., Iran, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, the European Union, France and Germany—required Iran to agree to major limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international economic sanctions. It was a quid pro quo designed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Trump has repeatedly characterized the pact as a "bad deal." In decertifying the accord, the president said Iran is "not living up to the spirit of the deal."
But the International Atomic Energy Agency—the U.N. nuclear watchdog that conducts thorough monitoring procedures—has consistently said Iran is keeping its end of the bargain.
Moreover, Defense Secretary James Mattis recently said it's in the national security interest of the U.S. to stay within the deal.
"The truth of the matter is, Iran is holding up its end of the deal," former Vice President Joe Biden said in a Facebook post responding to Trump's decision to decertify the deal. "The International Atomic Energy Agency has said so. Our allies in Europe have said so. Even the Trump administration has twice certified Iran's compliance."
Biden said Trump's decision goes against "reason and evidence," and warned the president is inflicting "lasting damage to American global leadership."
Indeed, Trump's position on the accord with Iran goes against top American allies. The U.K.'s Foreign and Commonwealth Office tweeted on Sunday it is "committed" to the Iran nuclear deal.
Trump has given Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran. If Congress chooses to do so, it would essentially mean the nuclear deal would fall apart.
If this occurs, there are concerns that Iran would rapidly pursue the development of a nuclear weapon and a new crisis would begin in the Middle East, a region already contending with tensions over an array of issues.
With that said, experts believe there's a fair chance Trump won't get what he wants moving foward.
"For Trump's senior advisers, decertification was a compromise between the need to indulge their boss's obsession with tearing down his predecessor's chief foreign policy achievement and the need to maintain, at least for the time being, an agreement that is working and serving the security interests of the United States," Robert Einhorn, who played a central part in formulating U.S. policy on Iran's nuclear program while advising the Obama administration on nonproliferation and arms control, tells Newsweek.
"Congress will likely fail to agree on new legislation that would set new conditions for U.S. adherence to the [Iran deal], and the Europeans will almost surely refuse to impose new sanctions to pressure Iran to accept modifications of a deal the allies believe is working well," Einhorn adds. "This will greatly frustrate the president."
But whether this will lead Trump to follow through with his threat to terminate the deal if Congress doesn't reach a solution he's satisfied with is open to question, Einhorn says.
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