Iran says the US is violating the nuclear deal. It has a point.
Trump’s behavior at recent summits undermines its basic terms.
Updated by Zeeshan Aleem@ZeeshanAleemzeeshan.aleem@vox.com Jul 21, 2017, 8:50am EDT
Iran is accusing the US of violating the landmark nuclear deal between the two countries. Surprisingly, Tehran may be right — and it could have serious consequences for the future of the accord.
The dispute dates back to May’s NATO summit in Brussels, when President Donald Trump asked some of Washington’s closest European allies to hold off from signing new business deals with Iran.
That’s a problem, because the nuclear deal itself bars the US and the European Union from implementing “any policy specifically intended to directly and adversely affect the normalization of trade and economic relations with Iran” so long as Tehran sticks to the deal. Earlier this week, the administration reluctantly certified that Iran was doing so.
Still, Trump’s push to halt Iran’s burgeoning business relationships with Europe sparked fury in Tehran, where senior Iranian officials bluntly accused the US of breaking the pact.
In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said “the United States has failed to implement its part of the bargain,” citing the fact that Trump “used his presence in Hamburg during the G20 meeting in order to dissuade leaders from other countries to engage in business with Iran.”
Zarif’s claim isn’t based on hearsay — it came straight from the White House itself.
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https://www.vox.com/2017/7/21/16003746/trump-iran-deal-zarif
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