nuclear treaty

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">belated nuclear weapons bak?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pow</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Bolton was widely seen as the driving force behind Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. </b>This treaty—signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union Premier Mikhail Gorbachev—eliminated US and Russian land-based short- and medium-range missiles, both nuclear and conventional. It was a key staple of the non-proliferation regime.<a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/john-bolton/#ftn34" name="ftnref" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; transition: background 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1) 0s; box-shadow: rgb(169, 15, 11) 0px -2px 0px inset; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 0px;">[34]</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Commenting on the decision to pull out of the INF and Bolton’s role in it,<b> Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund</b>, wrote, “Just in time for Halloween, John Bolton emerges from the basement of the White House to continue his serial killing spree of arms control agreements. … Bolton is about to dismember [the INF]—for no good reason. He apparently has convinced an uninformed and uninterested president that a likely Russian violation of the INF Treaty is reason to destroy the agreement.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cirincione noted that there was a legitimate basis for accusing Russia of violating the INF, but that this was not nearly enough reason to withdraw from a treaty that was, on the whole, still achieving its purpose. Instead, Cirincione contended, the decision to withdraw was based on a desire for new missiles called for in Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review, issued early in 2018.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Cirincione argued, “In order to field these new weapons, Bolton needs Trump to quit Reagan’s treaty</b>. But there is no need for these new instruments of mass destruction. Even if the Russians have violated the agreement, the United States already has thousands of long-range nuclear weapons trained on Russia. Additional weapons would be redundant, providing no new capability.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Bolton’s role, Cirincione stated, “Bolton does not try to mask his identity or his right-wing ideologue. He does not issue his threats in raspy phone calls, but boldly proclaims that U.S. military power should not be constrained by any treaties, under any circumstances. Like a recycled horror movie, he presents nuclear war-fighting ideas from the 1950s as if they were bold new concepts</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.”</span><a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/john-bolton/#ftn35" name="ftnref" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation; transition: background 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1) 0s; box-shadow: rgb(169, 15, 11) 0px -2px 0px inset; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 0px;">[35]</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Europeans expressed concerns that Washington might deploy new missiles on the continent without the INF. But, Reuters noted, “Bolton said Washington was ‘a long way’ from making any such deployments in Europe and said grim warnings about the dangerous consequences of Washington quitting the treaty were wide of the mark and reminded him of similarly hollow warnings when the United States left the Cold War-era Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002.”<a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/john-bolton/#ftn36" name="ftnref" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; transition: background 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1) 0s; box-shadow: rgb(169, 15, 11) 0px -2px 0px inset; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 0px;">[36]</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Bolton’s appointment ensured that Trump would stay the course in abandoning the Iran nuclear deal, and he did.</b> His support for military action against Iran is well known, and he has held that position for many years. In 2015, he penned an op-ed in the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">New York Times</em> entitled, “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.” In it, he made clear that he envisioned not only a military attack, preferably by Israel, on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, but also a U.S.-engineered regime change in Iran.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“The inconvenient truth is that only military action like Israel’s 1981 attack on Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor in Iraq or its 2007 destruction of a Syrian reactor, designed and built by North Korea, can accomplish what is required,” opined Bolton. “Time is terribly short, but a strike can still succeed.</b> … An attack need not destroy all of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, but by breaking key links in the nuclear-fuel cycle, it could set back its program by three to five years. The United States could do a thorough job of destruction, but Israel alone can do what’s necessary. Such action should be combined with vigorous American support for Iran’s opposition, aimed at regime change in Tehran.”<a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/john-bolton/#ftn37" name="ftnref" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; transition: background 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1) 0s; box-shadow: rgb(169, 15, 11) 0px -2px 0px inset; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 0px;">[37]</a></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bolton’s penchant for intemperate statements often compromised his work as a diplomat. In July 2003, during the run-up to the six-party talks with North Korea, Bolton characterized North Korean President Kim Jong Il as the “tyrannical dictator” of a country where “life is a hellish nightmare.” North Korea responded in kind, saying that “such human scum and bloodsucker is not entitled to take part in the talks. … We have decided not to consider him as an official of the U.S. administration any longer nor to deal with him.” The State Department had to send a replacement for Bolton to the talks.<span style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; transition: background 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1) 0s; box-shadow: rgb(169, 15, 11) 0px -2px 0px inset; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 0; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/john-bolton/#ftn101" name="ftnref" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; transition: background 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1) 0s; box-shadow: rgb(169, 15, 11) 0px -2px 0px inset; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 0px;">[101]</a></span></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><a href="https://lobelog.com/document-reveals-billionaire-backers-behind-united-against-nuclear-iran/">https://lobelog.com/document-reveals-billionaire-backers-behind-united-against-nuclear-iran/</a></div><div>
</div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Eli Clifton</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the many groups engaged in advocacy over a potential deal between Iran and world powers, <a href="http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/united_against_nuclear_iran" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)</a> stands apart as by far the most mysterious. Late last month, UANI <a href="http://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/press-releases/uani-national-advocacy-campaign-highlight-critical-issues-remaining-iran-nuclear-nego" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">announced</a> it would launch a “multi-million dollar” ad campaign, noting “a growing concern that U.S. negotiators could be pressured into making dangerous concessions in order to cement a deal,” according to the group’s CEO, Mark Wallace.<span id="more-29966" /></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the ad buy suggests, UANI draws on a deep well of resources to fund fretful warnings about the dangers of compromising with Iran’s nuclear negotiators. But, despite piecemeal information unearthed in <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/194969/gop-megadonor-sheldon-adelson-funds-mysterious-anti-iran-pressure-group" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">my previous reporting</a>, a more comprehensive look at UANI’s funding has until now remained obscured by a US government-backed veil of secrecy: the group’s donor rolls were among the documents a plaintiff was seeking in a defamation case against UANI until the Justice Department quashed the suit with an <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/eric-holder-state-secrets-defamation-lawsuit-iran" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">invocation of state secrets</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, however, I’ve obtained and reviewed a comprehensive list of UANI’s major donors in UANI’s 2013 tax year, providing some answers about who is backing the group’s efforts.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to the “Schedule B” filing that tax-exempt nonprofits must submit to the IRS, the top donors to UANI are a pair of trusts associated with the <b>billionaire Thomas Kaplan and a family foundation operated by Republican mega-donor <a href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Adelson_Sheldon" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Sheldon Adelson</a> and his wife Miriam. </b>Together, the funding associated with Kaplan and Adelson accounted for more than three-quarters of the group’s total revenue of $1.7 million for the 2013 tax year.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As I previously reported for <em style="">The Nation</em>, Adelson’s family foundation <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/194969/gop-megadonor-sheldon-adelson-funds-mysterious-anti-iran-pressure-group" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">contributed half a million dollars to UANI that year</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kaplan’s contributions to the anti-Iran group were larger overall—totaling $843,000, around half the UANI’s annual revenue for that tax year—but through two separate trusts managed by his company, named in the schedule B document as The Tigris Group. (Known Kaplan companies include The Tigris Financial Group, The Tigris Group of Companies, and The Electrum Group.) The first, Butterfield Trust, is described in a 2011 Sunshine Silver Mines <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1517006/000119312511183929/ds1.htm" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">prospectus</a> as “trustee of a trust primarily for the benefit of members of the family of Dr. Thomas Kaplan.” Butterfield Trust contributed $281,000 to UANI in 2013. The other Kaplan trust, New Generations, gave UANI $562,000, according to the Schedule B.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lawsuit Against UANI</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UANI, an outfit dedicated to promoting and strengthening sanctions and taking a hard line in the current Iran nuclear negotiations, made headlines earlier this year thanks to a bizarre lawsuit. Victor Restis sued UANI for defamation in July 2013 after the group <a href="http://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/press-releases/uani-calls-greek-ship-owner-victor-restis-and-restis-group-end-illicit-business-relat" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">accused him</a> of doing illegal business with Iran, characterizing the Greek shipping magnate and an associate of being “front-men” for the Iranian government.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This past March, the Justice Department succeeded in getting the case dismissed. As part of discovery, the legal term for exchanging documents and information before trial. Restis’s lawyers had asked UANI to produce documents backing up its allegations in court, as well as some general information about the group, including its donor rolls. But the Justice Department shielded UANI from complying with the requests by invoking state secrets. An <a href="https://www.eff.org/files/2014/10/30/restis_amicus_brief.pdf" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">amicus brief</a> filed by civil liberties groups said the intervention was unprecedented: “Never before has the government sought dismissal of a suit between private parties on state secrets grounds without providing the parties and the public any information about the government’s interest in the case.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the fall of 2014, as the case was heating up, UANI <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/13/ny-uani-idUSnBw135030a+100+BSW20140913" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">released a statement</a> responding to queries raised by Restis’s legal team. The statement claimed that “UANI has never sought or received funds from any foreign individual” and that “UANI has never sought or received funds from any business about which UANI has expressed concerns regarding business with Iran.” The statement added that the group was “unaware of any donor to UANI who even knows Mr. Restis, much less that competes in any way with Mr. Restis’ businesses.” The denials, however, became nearly impossible to confirm when the Justice Department asked a judge to block the case, which could have led to the release of donor information.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“These kinds of financial ties were among what we specifically requested in discovery,” Restis’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, told LobeLog.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The [new] information only confirms that there is a need to unravel the web of financial and political involvement between this organization and its supporters both in the United States and abroad,” said Lowell. “That is what we are seeking to do in this litigation to create transparency of the many interests involved.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pattern of Giving</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Both Thomas Kaplan and Sheldon Adelson have family ties to Israel. Adelson <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/miriam-adelson" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">gives in concert</a> with his Israeli-born wife, Miriam. “I am not Israeli,” Sheldon Adelson <a href="http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/01/27/10249298-gingrich-funder-isnt-trying-to-buy-the-presidency-aide-says" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">said at a 2010 event</a>, speaking about the founding of <em style="">Israel Hayom</em>, a right-wing newspaper he owns in Israel. Standing beside Miriam, however, Adelson went on: “All we care about is being good Zionists, being good citizens of Israel, because even though I am not Israeli born, Israel is in my heart.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Kaplan trust New Generations is <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/premerger-notification-program/early-termination-notices/20110468" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">associated with Kaplan and his wife</a>, Dafna Recanati Kaplan, the daughter of influential Israeli investor Leon Recanati (Leon’s late uncle Raphael, an Israeli-American businessman, was himself a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/02/world/raphael-recanati-philanthropist-dies-at-75.html" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">shipping magnate</a>).</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both sets of major donors raise questions about UANI’s professed non-partisanship.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Adelsons give almost exclusively to the Republican Party, Republican candidates, and right-wing dark money groups; Kaplan gives to both parties, but the sums to Republican affiliates and candidates, between the 2012 election cycle and the present, were higher, at a ratio of roughly 10 to 1. Before the 2012 election, Kaplan contributed $6,200 respectively to the Idaho, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Oklahoma Republican parties as well as $30,800 to the Republican National Committee. He also contributed $58,100 to the Romney Victory committee and $100,000 to the Romney-supporting Restore Our Future super PAC. The Adelsons, for their part, were reported to have <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/sheldon-adelson-2012-election_n_2223589.html" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">spent $150 million</a> to support Republican candidates in the 2012 election and contributed <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/03/casino-tycoon-sheldon-adelson-takes-100-million-gamble-on-gop-senate.html" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">up to $100 million</a> to support Republicans in the 2014 Senate midterms—not to mention a host of right-wing pressure groups that enjoy the Adelsons’ largesse.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stance on Iran</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Both Thomas Kaplan and Sheldon Adelson have made hawkish statements about Iran.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adelson famously <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2013/10/adelson-nuclear-negotiate" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">proposed</a> launching a first-strike nuclear attack against Iran to send a message to Tehran’s nuclear negotiators. And Kaplan <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIqrkxO-HJs&feature=youtu.be&t=30m27s" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">publicly compared</a> UANI’s effectiveness to advanced weaponry, presumably targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, during a March 2014 event held in his honor. “United Against Nuclear Iran may not have had Tomahawk missiles and aircraft carriers at its disposal, [but] we’ve done more to bring Iran to heel than any other private sector initiative and most public ones,” Kaplan said.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Kaplan’s business interests also present an interesting angle on his funding anti-Iran advocacy like UANI’s. As I noted in a <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/08/11/billionaires_sketchy_middle_east_gamble_meet_the_man_betting_on_war_with_iran/" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">previous report for </a><a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/08/11/billionaires_sketchy_middle_east_gamble_meet_the_man_betting_on_war_with_iran/" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Salon</em></a>, one of Kaplan’s mining concerns, the now-bankrupt Apex Silver Mines, Ltd., advertised itself in an annual report as a sound investment because of the potential for a “nuclear confrontation” with Iran. Likewise with another silver venture called Sunshine Silver Mines: a 2011 investment <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1517006/000119312511183929/ds1.htm" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">prospectus </a>talked up silver investments in light of “political unrest in the Middle East.” Amb. Mark Wallace, who had by then already taken the helm at UANI, was overseeing Sunshine under the aegis of the Tigris Financial Group, where Wallace serves as CEO.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the time the prospectus talked up “political unrest,” three of Kaplan’s companies controlled Sunshine through a 70 percent stake; half of that stake was held by the Butterfield Trust—the same Kaplan trust that gave UANI almost $300,000 in 2013.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adelson’s family foundation declined to comment on their contribution to UANI. Neither UANI nor Kaplan’s office responded to requests for comment.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UANI’s 2013 “Schedule B” can be viewed <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/270211857/United-Against-Nuclear-Iran-2013-Schedule-B?secret_password=8Z9wtrKQd16N43tNemgl" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref? nyt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump Abandons Iran Nuclear Deal He Long Scorned</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump Pulls Out of Iran Deal</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Trump said pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal sends a message that “the United States no longer makes empty threats.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In just a short period of time, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapons. Therefore, I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. In a few moments, I will sign a presidential memorandum to begin reinstating U.S. nuclear sanctions on the Iranian regime. We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction. Today’s action sends a critical message. The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them.</font></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>President Trump said pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal sends a message that “the United States no longer makes empty threats.</b>”CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York Times</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Mark Landler</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">May 8, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WASHINGTON — President Trump declared on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, unraveling the signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor Barack Obama, isolating the United States from its Western allies and sowing uncertainty before a risky nuclear negotiation with North Korea.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The decision, while long anticipated and widely telegraphed, leaves the 2015 agreement reached by seven countries after more than two years of grueling negotiations in tatters. The United States will now reimpose the stringent sanctions it imposed on Iran before the deal and is considering new penalties.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Iran said it will remain in the deal, which tightly restricted its nuclear ambitions for a decade or more in return for ending the sanctions that had crippled its economy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>So did France, Germany and Britain,</b> raising the prospect of a trans-Atlantic clash as European companies face the return of American sanctions for doing business with Iran. China and Russia, also signatories to the deal, are likely to join Iran in accusing the United States of violating the accord.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mr. Trump’s move could embolden hard-line forces in Iran,</b> raising the threat of Iranian retaliation against Israel or the United States, fueling an arms race in the Middle East and fanning sectarian conflicts from Syria to Yemen.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The president, however, framed his decision as the fulfillment of a bedrock campaign promise and as the act of a dealmaker dissolving a fatally flawed agreement. He predicted his tough line with Iran would strengthen his hand as he prepared to meet North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, to begin negotiating the surrender of his nuclear arsenal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made,” a grim-faced Mr. Trump said in an 11-minute address from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. “It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace, and it never will.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Read the full transcript of President Trump’s remarks.]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Mr. Trump’s announcement drew a chorus of opposition from European leaders, several of whom lobbied him feverishly not to pull out of the agreement and searched for fixes to it that would satisfy him.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It also drew a rare public rebuke by Mr. Obama, who said Mr. Trump’s withdrawal would leave the world less safe, confronting it with “a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The response from Iran itself, however, was muted. President Hassan Rouhani declared that the Iranians intended to abide by the terms of the deal, and he criticized Mr. Trump for his history of not honoring international treaties. Mr. Trump won strong backing from Saudi Arabia and Israel, whose leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hailed him for a “historic move” and “courageous leadership.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What Changes and What Remains in the Iran Nuclear Deal</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program under the deal could survive.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Three times previously, the president’s aides had persuaded him not to dismantle the Iran deal. But Mr. Trump made clear that his patience had worn thin, and with a new, more hawkish cohort of advisers — led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the national security adviser, John R. Bolton — the president faced less internal resistance than earlier in his administration.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Mr. Trump had long scorned the Iran deal, threatening repeatedly to rip it up during the 2016 presidential race, his impulse to act now was reinforced by what he views as the success of his policy toward North Korea. He has told aides and foreign leaders that his policy of maximum pressure had forced Mr. Kim to the bargaining table, and that a similar policy of overwhelming pressure would enable the United States to extract a better deal from Iran.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As Mr. Trump abandoned one diplomatic project, he accelerated another — announcing that Mr. Pompeo was flying to Pyongyang, the capital of North Kore</b>a, to continue discussions with Mr. Kim about the upcoming summit meeting. He expressed hope that three Americans who are detained in the North would be released soon.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The message to North Korea,” Mr. Bolton told reporters, “is the president wants a real deal.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He rejected the suggestion that the United States could not be trusted to keep its agreements when political winds change. “Any nation reserves the right to correct a past mistake,” Mr. Bolton said, citing President George W. Bush’s decision to withdraw from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty in 2001.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump administration, he said, would continue to work with Europeans to pressure the Iranians. He dismissed those who said the United States was on a path to war with Iran, though he did not present any new diplomatic initiatives. Another senior administration official acknowledged that there was no Plan B.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Months of intense negotiations with the Europeans to keep the accord in place collapsed over Mr. Trump’s insistence that the limits placed by the agreement on Iran’s nuclear fuel production were inadequate. Under the provisions of the deal, those limits, or “sunset clauses,” were to expire in 2030 — 15 years after the deal was signed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As a result, the United States will reinstate all the sanctions it had waived as part of the nuclear accord, and it will impose additional economic penalties that are now being drawn up by the Treasury Departmen</b>t.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin declined on Tuesday to specify what additional sanctions the United States might impose, but he expressed confidence that they would still be powerful even if other American allies did not follow suit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We do not want to let Iran use the U.S. financial markets and financial system and transact in dollars until they agree that not only will they not have a nuclear weapon now, but we’ve put in provisions that they will never have one,” Mr. Mnuchin said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his announcement, Mr. Trump recited familiar arguments against the deal: that it does not address the threat of Iran’s ballistic missiles or its malign behavior in the region, and that the expiration dates for the sunset clauses open the door to an Iranian nuclear bomb down the road.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even if Iran was in compliance, he said, it could “still be on the verge of a nuclear breakout in just a short period of time.” In fact, under the deal, the limits on Iran’s uranium enrichment and stockpiles of nuclear fuel mean that Iran would not be on the verge of a nuclear breakout until 2030.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Still, Mr. Trump said, the United States and its allies could not stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon “under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Iran deal is defective at its core,” he concluded.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Trump’s announcement capped a frantic four-day period in which American and European diplomats made a last-ditch effort to bridge their differences and preserve the agreement.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>That effort began Friday, when Mr. Pompeo called his counterparts in Europe </b>to tell them that Mr. Trump was planning to withdraw from the deal, but that he was trying to win a two-week reprieve for the United States and Europe to continue negotiating. Mr. Pompeo, people familiar with the talks said, suggested that he favored a so-called soft withdrawal, in which Mr. Trump would pull out of the deal but hold off on reimposing some of the sanctions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The next day, the State Department’s chief negotiator, Brian H. Hook, consulted with European diplomats to try to break a deadlock over the sunset provision, under which the restrictions on Iran’s ability to produce nuclear fuel for civilian use expire after 15 years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Europeans had already agreed to a significant compromise: to reimpose sanctions if there were a determination that the Iranians were within 12 months of producing a nuclear weapon. But officials said that still did not satisfy Mr. Trump, and the Europeans were not willing to go any further.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Monday, the White House began informing allies that Mr. Trump was going to withdraw from the deal and reimpose sanctions on oil and impose new sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Under the financial sanctions, European companies will have 90 to 180 days to wind down their operations in Iran, or they will run afoul of the American banking system. The sanctions on oil will require European and Asian countries to reduce their imports from Iran.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Mnuchin insisted that the restrictions would not drive up oil prices because other suppliers would pick up the slack. “My expectation is not that oil prices go higher,” he said. “To a certain extent, some of this was already in the market on oil prices.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mr. Trump’s decision will test his already frayed relationship with European leaders. President Emmanuel Macron of France, </b>whom the president welcomed with a state dinner two weeks ago, learned of his decision in a phone call with Mr. Trump on Tuesday morning. Later, he said in a post on Twitter that the European allies “regret” his decision.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The international regime against nuclear proliferation is at stake,” he added.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a joint statement, Mr. Macron, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain noted pointedly that the United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the nuclear deal remained the “binding international legal framework for the resolution of the dispute.” That raises the possibility that the United States will be found to be in violation in the Security Council.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Few people were more stung by Mr. Trump’s decision than those who worked for Mr. Obama. Though he has moved methodically to dismantle his predecessor’s legacy, his reversal of the Iran deal was particularly painful, given the five years of effort that went into imposing sanctions, and the more than two-year-long negotiation led by Secretary of State John Kerry that yielded the accord.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“No rhetoric is required,” Mr. Kerry said in a statement. “The facts speak for themselves. Instead of building on unprecedented nonproliferation verification measures, this decision risks throwing them away and dragging the world back to the brink we faced a few years ago.</b>”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div>