U.S. President Donald Trump has announced America’s formal withdrawal from an international deal established with Iran intended to curb the aggressive nation’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Trump said,

The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them … In a few moments, I will sign a presidential memorandum to begin reinstating US nuclear sanctions on the Iranian regime. We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction … Any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could also be strongly sanctioned by the United States. America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail.”

According to reports sourced from within the White House, President Trump first told French President Emmanuel Macron about his plans to make the announcement during a Tuesday morning phone conversation. As a result of the U.S. withdrawal, Trump has stated that he intends to re-establish the full suite of sanctions placed on Iran prior to the signing of the international agreement, brokered in no small part by Trump’s predecessor, Barrack Obama. One unnamed source also indicated that President Trump plans to enact further economic penalties for Iranian aggression, though for the moment, the focus of the President’s statements remained nuclear.

President Trump went on to say, “If I allowed this deal to stand, there would soon be a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Everyone would want their weapons ready by the time Iran had theirs.”

The New York Times has reported that President Trump took specific issue with limits on Iran’s nuclear fuel production dropping after 2030. In effect, the “nuclear deal” truly only postpones Iran’s permitted pursuit of expanding their nuclear infrastructure, rather than permanently blocking it.

The so-called Iran deal was supposed to protect the United States and our allies from the lunacy of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a weapon that will only endanger the survival of the Iranian regime. In fact, the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and over time reach the brink of a nuclear blackout … Today, we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie,” Trump said.

It is expected that this decision will prompt frustrations from American allies and opponents alike. Several European leaders have voiced their concerns about President Trump’s previous claims regarding the nuclear deal. Boris Johnson, the British foreign secretary, even took to President Trump’s favorite social media platform over the weekend as a part of an international effort to influence the American president’s decision.

Image courtesy of the Associated Press