Trump’s ‘decertification’ of Iran deal would be ‘colossal blunder’

An American scholar and political commentator says it would be “a colossal political blunder” if US President Donald Trump refuses to certify the Iran nuclear agreement this week.  

James Fetzer, a professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth from Madison, Wisconsin, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV amid reports that Trump is expected to “decertify” the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, while quietly encouraging Congress not to reimpose sanctions that could unravel the landmark deal.

Trump’s national security advisers have recommended he should not certify the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but keep the agreement intact for now.

Trump, who has described the accord as “the worst deal ever,” has until October 15 to decide whether to certify that Iran is in compliance with the accord.

PressTV-'Trump quietly asks Congress to save Iran deal'

The US president wants to "decertify" the Iran nuclear deal while asking Congress not to reimpose sanctions that could unravel the accord, reports say.

“Donald Trump’s deceitful plan to ‘decertify’ the Iran deal while not asking Congress to reimpose sanctions smacks the kind of duplicity we expected from the Bush-Cheney administration when the vice president organized a team B in order to counteract the intelligence he was receiving from the CIA, the NSA and other intelligence organizations, denying that Iraq was seeking to pursue nuclear weapons,” Professor Fetzer said.

“This approach is very much on a par.  Not only are the European nations who participated in the deal, including the UK, France and Germany, coming to the Capitol to meet members of the Congress, but Russia and China are decidedly unenthusiastic about any tempering with the agreement, which after all was founded upon allegations about a nuclear development program that the US’s own intelligence agencies had already declared to be no longer in existence,” he added.  

'Iran never pursued nuclear weapons'

The veteran analyst said US intelligence agencies "claimed in 2007 Iran was not pursuing nuclear weapons, reaffirmed in 2011 and 2012, even Mossad agreed just shortly before Bibi Netanyahu went to the United Nations and declared the opposite."

“This is such a bizarre idea when there is no reason whatsoever, no evidence, not even inkling or a hint of a suggestion that Iran is not complying with the agreement, that it reflects very, very poorly on Donald Trump,” he noted.

“And I am sorry to say that it lends credence to the remarks attributed to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the president of the United States is a ‘moron,’” the scholar said.  

“This is very, very shocking. It is unintelligent. It is disrespectful. It is a corrupt act, especially given that both Secretary of Defense Mattis and Secretary of State Tillerson have observed that Iran is complying which even the administration has already twice certified to be the case,” the academic observed.

PressTV-World will change if Trump nixes JCPOA: Germany

The German foreign minister says 'the world will change' if the United States decides to ditch the nuclear deal with Iran.

“It would be a colossal political blunder if Trump seeks to pursue this, which I would not expect the Congress to buy at all and certainly would count very heavily against the administration in its conduct of international affairs,” the professor argued.

“Who will any longer be able to believe in the United States if it can’t enter a solemn agreement with multiple nations, and then with no evidence whatsoever to support it back out of it on a whim, as the president of the United States is now purposing to do?” the analyst asked.  

“This is a shameful behavior, embarrassing to the United States and gravely affecting its standing among nations in an adverse fashion,” Professor Fetzer said in his concluding remarks.

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