Trump to face Putin reckoning if Iran nuclear deal annulled

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini speaks during a debate on Syria and Turkey at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, on November 22, 2016.


EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says the US will have to face Russia if President-elect Donald Trump decides to back away from the Iran nuclear deal.
Mogherini made the remarks in a Wednesday interview with The Wall Street Journal, adding that it was impossible for Trump to demand fresh concessions from Iran in relation to its nuclear program.
“It is an international agreement in the framework of the United Nations,” she said. “There is no way the agreement can be reopened bilaterally,” she added.

During his presidential campaign, Republican Trump, who defeated his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the November 8 election, had promised to annul the deal, which he referred to as a "disaster" and "the worst deal ever negotiated."

“I think it is in the interest of the United States that the deal continues to be implemented,” noted Mogherini.

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She went on to warn that one of the first fallouts of a US decision to back down from the deal would be a clash with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country is a signatory to the nuclear agreement.

The US Senate on December 1 voted to extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for another 10 years. The sanctions law, which would authorize the US president to re-impose sanctions on Iran, was first adopted in 1996 to punish investments in the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program and its support for anti-Israeli resistance groups. The ISA now needs President Barack Obama’s signature to turn into law.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that Iran had warned that the approval of the ISA would amount to a breach of the nuclear deal.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany in July 2015.

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Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

“The President-elect seems inclined to define his choices…on the basis of American interests,” she said. “The fact that the deal is fully implemented by both sides has delivered on the impossibility for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” she added.