LONDON — Iran, Russia and European leaders roundly condemned President Trump’s decision on Friday to disavow the Iran nuclear deal,
saying that it reflected the growing isolation of the United States,
threatened to destabilize the Middle East and could make it harder to
resolve the growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The
reaction was far from panicked, as Mr. Trump’s decision punts to
Congress the critical decision of whether the United States will
reimpose sanctions on Iran — a step that would effectively sink the
deal.
But
Mr. Trump also warned that unless the nuclear agreement was altered and
made permanent — to prohibit Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons —
he would terminate the agreement, an ultimatum that threw the future of
the accord into question.
Though
they avoided direct criticism of Mr. Trump, Prime Minister Theresa May
of Britain, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Emmanuel
Macron of France said in a rare joint statement that they “stand
committed” to the 2015 nuclear deal and that preserving it was “in our
shared national security interest.”
“The
nuclear deal was the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy and was a
major step towards ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is not diverted
for military purposes,” they added.
Sigmar
Gabriel, Germany’s foreign minister, said that Mr. Trump was sending “a
difficult and also from our point of view dangerous signal.”
He
said that the Iran deal, and other diplomatic achievements, were
necessary “to convince countries like North Korea, and maybe also
others, that it is possible to create security without acquiring nuclear
weapons.”
“Destroying
this agreement would, worldwide, mean that others could no longer rely
on such agreements — that’s why it is a danger that goes further than
Iran,” he added.
Reaction
from Iran was quick and pointed. Appearing on television, its
president, Hassan Rouhani, denounced Mr. Trump and called the United
States an outlier that had become “more lonely than ever” in the
international community. Mr. Rouhani did not threaten to withdraw from
the deal, but made it clear that he would not renegotiate the terms,
either.
“The
statements of Mr. Trump are nothing but abuse and threats against the
people of Iran,” he said. “An international agreement cannot be
disregarded.”
The
European leaders noted that the United Nations Security Council had
unanimously endorsed the deal, and that the International Atomic Energy
Agency had confirmed Iran’s compliance with it.
But
Mr. Trump’s aggressive stance on Iran won plaudits from several nations
on Friday, specifically from adversaries of Iran like Israel, Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Benjamin
Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who has always opposed the
agreement with Iran, said that Mr. Trump’s announcement created “an
opportunity to fix this bad deal” and was a sign of Mr. Trump’s
determination to “boldly confront Iran’s terrorist regime.”
Saudi
Arabia, which has waged a proxy battle against Iran for supremacy in
the region and was the first country Mr. Trump visited after taking
office, said it welcomed what it called a “new U.S. strategy” toward
Iran.
The
United Arab Emirates, which like Saudi Arabia is a predominantly Sunni
Muslim country with a sizable Shiite minority, also said that it “fully
supports” Mr. Trump’s stance on Iran.
Some
leaders declared that the deal, reached in 2015 between Iran and six
world powers, including the United States, was not something that Mr.
Trump could cancel, contending that Mr. Trump was essentially putting on
a show for his political base.
“The
president of the United States has many powers — not this one,” the
European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, said at a news
conference in Brussels.
She
said that there had been no violations of the agreement and that the
world could not afford to dismantle an accord that “is working and
delivering,” especially at a time of “acute nuclear threat,” referring
to the standoff with North Korea over its nuclear program.
Criticism of the nuclear deal was a central theme of Mr. Trump’s candidacy for president, and he has repeatedly called for revisiting what he sees as a fatally flawed agreement.
Mr.
Trump said on Friday that under the current deal “Iran can sprint”
toward the development of nuclear weapons when the deal’s restrictions
expire.
Some
of the prohibitions in the agreement are set to end in 2025, including
limits on the number of its centrifuges. Iran, which has always
maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, not for
weapons, would not agree to a permanent freeze in its ability to enrich
nuclear fuel.
That must be changed, Mr. Trump said, or he would scrap the deal altogether.
Russia,
which took part in the negotiations to reach the accord and has warned
Mr. Trump not to rescind it, said that the president had no basis for
disavowing the deal.
“Iran
is abiding” by the nuclear agreement, Mikhail Ulyanov, a director at
the Russian foreign ministry, told the Interfax news agency. “Everyone
agrees with that. And an attempt to somehow heighten the tensions in
this situation looks like unmotivated aggression.”
In
blunt language, Ms. Mogherini, the European Union’s top diplomat,
essentially looked past Mr. Trump and appealed to Congress directly.
America’s
next step “is now in the hands of the United States Congress,” she
said. “The international community and the European Union with it has
clearly indicated that the deal is and will continue to be in place.”
Russia urged American lawmakers to preserve the deal as well.
“We
want to hope that Congress will not take any dramatic steps which would
effectively signify a collapse” of the deal, Russia’s deputy foreign
minister told Interfax, referring to the renewed sanctions that might
lead Iran to nullify the accord.
In
his remarks, Mr. Trump accused Iran of violating both the letter and
the spirit of the accord. But Iran has accused the United States of
doing the same, and on Friday its mission to the United Nations warned
that Iran might itself back away from the deal.
“Iran
has many options on how to proceed and if necessary will terminate its
commitment regarding this issue,” the mission said in a statement,
without elaborating.
Iran
has also resisted the idea of renegotiating the nuclear agreement in
the West’s favor. Last month, its foreign minister rejected extending
the length or conditions of the accord, saying that Iran would consider
changing the agreement only if the concessions it had already made —
including giving up nuclear fuel — were reconsidered.
There
are fears that the basic framework of the accord could collapse if the
United States walks away. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told
reporters on Friday that Russia believed Iran would abandon the deal if
the United States did.
