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Eurasia
August 4, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
Tillerson: I don’t see eye to eye with Trump on Iran nuclear deal
bne IntelliNews
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged on August 2 that he and President Donald Trump are at odds over whether Washington should with- draw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The frank words from Tillerson leave Trump iso- lated on the merits of the agreement – formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – with none of the other signatories hav- ing expressed any serious doubt over whether Iran is complying with its terms. Russia, China, France, the UK and Germany have continued to back the nuclear deal, with major EU companies, such as French energy major Total, having in recent months started to push ahead with risky investments in Iran. They have gone ahead despite the threat that Trump’s hostility to Iran and the JCPOA could eventually pose a severe danger to their plans.
Ironically, while Trump continues to search for proof that Iran has in some way broken the letter of the JCPOA, experts believe Tehran has a very good case that the US president made such a breach himself when he actively encouraged foreign heads of government not to back investing in Iran at the early July G20 summit in Hamburg. Iran, meanwhile, on August 1, confirmed it had made its first formal complaint to the JCPOA commission that the US has breached the agreement by applying fresh sanctions that impact on areas supposedly protected by the deal.
Discussing his differences with Trump over the JCPOA and other areas of foreign policy, chief US diplomat Tillerson told a state department brief- ing: ”He and I have differences of views on things like JCPOA, and how we should use it.”
Under the terms of the JCPOA, the US must judge Iran as compliant or noncompliant with the deal
every 90 days. Trump is said to have come very close to killing the agreement in mid-July. He told the Wall Street Journal last week that “if it was
up to me, I would have had them noncompliant 180 days ago” and that he believed that when the implementation of the nuclear deal is next up for review in Washington, in October, Tehran would be judged as noncompliant.
Tillerson, who helped talk Trump out of finding noncompliance at the last review, used his brief- ing to dispel rumours that he found working with the president so difficult that he was on the point of a ‘Rexit’. The Americans, he said, could either “tear it [JCPOA] up and walk away” or stay in
the deal and hold the Iranians accountable to its terms. That, he added, would require Iran to act as a “good neighbour”.
“There are a lot of alternative means with which we use the agreement to advance our policies and the relationship with Iran, and that's what the conversation generally is around with the presi- dent as well,” Tillerson added.
Tillerson also said that it was important to coordi- nate with the other deal signatories because there were clear limitations on how much Washington can pressure Iran on its own. “The greatest pres- sure we can bring to bear on Iran to change their behaviour is a collective pressure,” he said.
Trump appears to be frustrated that there is no leverage in the terms of the nuclear deal that would allow the US to pressure Iran not to back terrorist or militia groups in conflicts across the Middle East, such as those in Syria, Iraq and Yem- en, or to put a lid on the Iranians' ballistic missile development programme.