US President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted Iran has not acted in keeping with a deal to curb its nuclear program, days before he must decide on the future of the accord.
“They have not lived up to the spirit of the agreement,” Trump said, as he huddled with military leaders ahead of perhaps the most consequential foreign policy decision of his young presidency.
“The Iranian regime supports terrorism, and exports violence and chaos across the Middle East,” Trump said in the Cabinet Room.
“That is why we must put an end to Iran’s continued aggression and nuclear ambitions,” he said. “You will be hearing about Iran very shortly.”
Gathered with military leaders and their spouses for a function after the meeting, Trump said: “This may be the calm before the storm,” while refusing to go into detail.
Trump must tell Congress by Oct. 15 whether he believes Iran is in compliance with the agreement.
He may well fly in the face of advice from some of his closest advisers, declaring Iran is not in compliance and leaving the pact’s fate in the hands of the Republican-controlled Congress.
Ahead of that deadline, several officials familiar with White House deliberations said that Trump has made it clear he does not want to certify Iran’s compliance.
However, a formal decision has yet to be made.
“The president is going to make an announcement about the decision that he’s made on a comprehensive strategy that his team supports, and we’ll do that in the coming days,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
White House officials cautioned against reports that Trump would make a speech revealing his decision on Thursday next week. However, the decision must come by an Oct. 15 deadline.
Trump has often railed against the deal by former US president Barack Obama, which offered Iran massive sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
He has repeatedly promised to rip it up, but has passed up an opportunity to end sanctions relief.
Every 90 days Trump must tell Congress whether Iran is living up to its end of the bargain, something that has already caused him political pain on two occasions.
The administration has made it clear that it wants Iran to stop ballistic missile tests and stop “nefarious” behavior across the Middle East, two issues that were not part of the agreement.
“They have not lived up to the spirit of the agreement and we’ll be discussing that tonight,” Trump said. “You will be hearing about Iran very shortly.”
The buildup to Trump’s decision has been dominated by intense debate inside the White House and fierce lobbying in Congress.
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford have spoken out publicly in favor of the agreement.
European ambassadors and diplomats have been camped out on Capitol Hill, trying to argue against any punitive actions that invite Iran to decide the US is in non-compliance.
Meanwhile, the deal’s opponents, such as US Senator Tom Cotton, have argued that Iran is not in compliance and sanctions and even military action should be considered.
Cotton met Trump at the White House on Thursday to make his case. He has said that Iran is operating more advanced nuclear centrifuges than it is permitted, exceeding limits on heavy water stocks, continuing to illicitly procure nuclear and missile technology outside of approved channels and refusing to grant international inspectors access to nuclear research and military facilities.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion