NEWS IN BRIEF – USA

13 Oct 17. Donald Trump repudiates landmark Iran nuclear agreement. President threatens to scrap deal unless Congress and allies back new sanctions. Donald Trump has called for sweeping new international sanctions on Iran and vowed to scrap a landmark nuclear deal unless Congress and US allies find a way to make it even harder for Tehran to develop nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. After months of debate, Mr Trump did not abandon the 2015 nuclear accord, which he had repeatedly during the presidential race pledged to rip up. But he refused to certify that Iran was in compliance — as required by US law — a move that now requires Congress to decide within 60 days whether to reimpose nuclear sanctions on Iran. “The Iran deal was one of the worst . . . transactions the US has ever entered into,” Mr Trump said. “We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout.” Essential stories related to this article US foreign policy Donald Trump to leave fate of Iran nuclear deal in Congress’s hands US foreign policy World powers hit back at Trump over repudiating Iran nuclear deal Instant Insight Donald Trump’s nuclear error is a gift to Iran’s hardliners Premium Describing the Iranian government as a “fanatical regime” with a “sinister vision for the future,” Mr Trump said he would impose sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite part of the Iranian military, for spreading terrorism — in an escalation against Tehran that will probably exacerbate tensions in the febrile region. While many Republicans welcomed the push for tougher restrictions on Iran, the move was slammed by Tehran and the European countries who signed the accord. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said Tehran would not succumb to a “dictator” and accused Mr Trump of making a “baseless allegations” against Iran. He said the deal was “not a bilateral treaty between Iran and the US to behave in any way he likes”. Federica Mogherini, EU foreign policy chief, criticised Mr Trump for undermining the deal, which Iran had signed with the permanent members of the UN Security Council — America, China, Russia, France and the UK — in addition to Germany and the EU. “It doesn’t belong to any single country and it’s not up to one single country to terminate it,” she said. “The president of the US has many powers — not this one.” The leaders of Germany, France and Britain said in a statement that they “stand “committed” to the deal and were “concerned by the possible implications”. Donald Trump decertifies Iran nuclear deal Play video Democrats, including several prominent lawmakers who voted against the 2015 accord, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, said Mr Trump was making the US less safe by declaring that Iran was not in compliance with a deal that many of his top officials had argued had helped prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, which was the goal of the landmark agreement. “At a moment when the US and its allies face a nuclear crisis with North Korea, the president has manufactured a new crisis that will isolate us from our allies and partners, compromising our ability to employ a diplomatic surge on the Korean Peninsula,” said Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee. Mr Trump stopped short of calling for the immediate reimposition of nuclear-related sanctions. But he urged Congress and European allies to fix the “many serious flaws” in the deal to ensure that Iran “can never threaten the world with nuclear weapons”. We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror, and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout DONALD TRUMP, US PRESIDENT He said Republicans were drafting legislation to amend an existing law — the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (Inara), which requires the certification — in a way that would strengthen