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Trump Again Threatens A Pull-Out From Nuclear Deal If Conditions Not Met


Flanked by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis, U.S. President Donald Trump meets with members of his cabinet at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 16, 2017.
Flanked by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis, U.S. President Donald Trump meets with members of his cabinet at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 16, 2017.

Three days after his landmark speech announcing his tougher approach to Iran, President Donald Trump once again threatened that a full withdrawal from the nuclear deal is possible.

Defending his decision not to certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear agreement, he repeated his argument that the Obama administration had made a bad deal.

"I feel strongly about what I did," Trump told reporters at a meeting of his Cabinet in the White House on Monday. "I'm tired of being taken advantage of as a nation. This nation has been taken advantage of for many, many years, for many decades, frankly, and I'm tired of watching it. But the Iran deal was something that I felt had to be done."

Now, the U.S. Congress must decide how to deal with the Iran, the White House and the other signatories of the agreement who have voiced support to for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA, or the Iran nuclear deal.

Congress can bring back the previous tough sanctions, simply not take any action or amend the Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which requires the president to certify Iran's compliance every ninety days.

President Trump siad on Monday that if Congress fails to act or other governments do not support an improvement of the agreement, a withdrawal from the deal is possible.

"We'll see what Phase 2 is. Phase 2 might be positive and it might be very negative. It might be a total termination. That's a very real possibility. Some would say that's a greater possibility. But it also could turn out to be very positive. We'll see what happens."

There is a move in Congress to amend the existing law but the outcome is not certain.

Also on Monday, Federica Mogherini, European Union's foreign Policy chief announced her plans to travel to Washington to discuss her disagreements with the new White House position on the nuclear deal.

Her decision was announced after EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg expressed deep concerns and called on persuasive action to influence the U.S. Congress in its upcoming decision on the issue.

Reporting by AP and Politico

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