US President Donald Trump has made a unilateral decision to decertify the Iran nuclear deal, a major diplomatic achievement back in 2015.Other signatories to the deal — UK, France, China, Russia and Germany — with the IAEA, have decided to honour the accord.

Now the US Congress has 60 days to decide whether to re-impose the sanctions on Iran or not, but if the Congress approves decertification, the deal is revoked.

It seems Mr Trump has some goals in his mind to pressurise Iran to come to the table and renegotiate the deal. He probably wants to convince Iran about not to support Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Syria.

Revoking the deal will have a negative effect on North Korea. It will also leave the world with two major nuclear crises — Iran and North Korea — which will, in return, threaten international peace and security.

President Trump’s decision was welcomed by Saudi Arabia and Israel, Both have common goals and are major US allies.

On the side of Iran, President Hassan Rouhani has declared that Iran will continue to comply with the agreement as other signatories have communicated their unanimity with Iran.

This, in turn, will shore up Tehran’s morale while questioning Washington’s credibility, in general, and President Donald Trump’s. in particular.

Zeeshan Rashid

Mardan

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2017