Donald Trump may have set the stage for war with Iran and for further nuclear weapons proliferation in the Middle East and North-East Asia. Trump’s populist speech ignored International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports, which have consistently noted that Iran has been in compliance of its JCPOA obligations. Yet, despite the shrill tone of Trump’s declaration to decertify Iran, he stopped well short of pulling out of the JCPOA—for now. Trump’s speech was, at best, an effort to preserve the JCPOA for the present but also threaten its future. Clearly then Trump’s decertification move is unlikely to have any significant impact on either Iran’s missile programme or its behaviour in the region.

Source: Mint October 22, 2017 17:48 UTC