Mr. Mattis came to office with well-established, hawkish views of Iran, whose support of Syria’s government and of Hezbollah, he believed, had cost American lives. In August, he conceded that he had argued in favor of keeping the Iran deal, saying he had “differences of views” from the president. “I don’t want to suggest to you that we’re not going to stick with the Iranian deal,” Mr. Tillerson said. “I think it is an imperfect arms control agreement — it’s not a friendship treaty,” Mr. Mattis said at the time. On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump repeatedly threatened to tear up the deal, and negotiate a better one.

Source: New York Times October 04, 2017 00:11 UTC