Iran nuclear deal: What is it?
Iran Nuclear Deal: What to know
Who gets what and at what price? A look at the controversial Iran Nuclear Deal.
With less than a week to go until the White House has to make a decision regarding the controversial Iran nuclear deal, President Trump slammed former Secretary of State John Kerry for reportedly working with foreign leaders to salvage the agreement.
Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif recently to attempt to preserve the deal, the Boston Globe reported. His plan was an “aggressive but stealthy” mission to put pressure on the Trump administration to keep at least part of the deal, according to the Globe.
“The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal,” Trump said in a tweet. “He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!”
The administration extended waivers on Iran’s nuclear sanctions earlier this year, keeping alive the landmark 2015 deal for an additional few months.
The waivers are accompanied by other, targeted sanctions on Iran for human rights abuses, officials said. And Trump warned then he could pull out of the nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor if fixes aren’t made – and soon.
The nuclear deal with Iran has long been a point of contention, especially among Republicans who opposed it. The White House faces a May 12 deadline on whether to continue with the deal.
Read on for a look at the agreement and why it’s so controversial.
What is the Iran nuclear deal?
The Iran nuclear deal framework – officially the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" – was a historic agreement reached by Iran and several world powers, including the U.S., in 2015, under Barack Obama’s presidency.
In part, the deal was made to reduce Iran’s ability to produce two components used in making nuclear weapons: plutonium and uranium. In return, crippling economic sanctions on Iran were to be abated.
Members of the Iranian delegation listen as President Donald Trump speaks during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
"Every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off," Obama said at the time. "This deal is not built on trust. It is built on verification."
A point of contention for many opponents is the deal's so-called “sunset clause” which would ease some of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program over time.
The deal was reached after two years of negotiations.
Certification that Iran is complying with the deal must be sent to Congress every 90 days. The first under the Trump administration noted that Tehran was in compliance.
In October 2017, Trump decertified the nuclear deal under U.S. law, saying the sanctions relief was disproportionate to Iran's nuclear concessions. He contended the arrangement was contrary to America's national security interests.
What has Trump said about it?
During the presidential campaign, Trump accused Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then his opponent, for making Iran a “world power” under the nuclear deal, which he called “the highest level of incompetence.”
“If you take a look at Iran from four, five years ago, they were dying,” Trump said during an event in September 2016. “They had sanctions, they were being choked to death and they were dying. They weren’t even going to be much of a threat.”
On Twitter, Trump has referred to the agreement as “a direct national security threat,” a “catastrophe that must be stopped,” the “dumbest & most dangerous misjudgments ever entered into in history of our country” and “the best deal of any kind in history” for Iran.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned the U.S. would pay a “high cost” if it backs out of the agreement.
What have others said about the deal ahead of the deadline?
While Russia, China and many European nations, such as France and Germany, have said they remain committed to the deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for Trump to abandon the agreement earlier this month.
“I said it from the start -- it has to be either fully fixed or fully nixed,” he said. “But if you do nothing to this deal, if you keep it as is, you will end up with Iran with a nuclear arsenal in a very short time.”
He also revealed new “dramatic” intelligence which he claimed shows Iran is “brazenly lying” about its nuclear program and shows the country is not complying with its end of the deal.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the U.S. is “aware of the information” released by Israel and “continues to examine it carefully.”
“This information provides new and compelling details about Iran’s efforts to develop missile-deliverable nuclear weapons,” Sanders said. “These facts are consistent with what the United States has long known: Iran had a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program that it has tried and failed to hide from the world and from its own people. The Iranian regime has shown it will use destructive weapons against its neighbors and others. Iran must never have nuclear weapons.”
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in April that the Trump administration was still deciding whether the deal can be improved enough to persuade the president that it should be kept.
He described the agreement as “imperfect” during a Senate hearing and said “there are obviously aspects of the agreement that can be improved upon.”
Fox News' Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.