US will withdraw from Iran nuclear deal

The United States will withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran and reimpose sanctions against it. This was announced by US President Donald Trump during a speech at the White House.

Trump called the deal with Iran "catastrophic", saying that as it stands, it is unable to prevent the development of Iranian nuclear weapons and could lead to an arms race in the Middle East. “Every country will want to have its own nuclear weapons by the time Iran develops its own,” Trump said.

The US President signed a memorandum on the introduction of economic sanctions against Iran. Trump said that these would be "the highest level" sanctions, without giving details. Other countries will also fall under them if they help Iran develop nuclear weapons, the US president added.

Trump also said he was ready to discuss a new nuclear deal with Iran.

• Iran agreed in July 2015 to freeze its nuclear program after lengthy negotiations with the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. In response, in January 2016, part of the international sanctions were lifted from Iran.
• Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the deal with Iran and threatened to withdraw from it. He believes that the terms of the agreement limit Iran's nuclear program only temporarily; Trump demanded to tighten them, as well as limit the creation of ballistic missiles in Iran. In the event that the United States withdraws from the agreement, the Iranian authorities also promised to leave it. Other countries participating in the deal support it.
• The Guardian, citing sources , said that Trump aides hired a private detective agency from Israel to collect compromising evidence on former President Barack Obama's advisers who were in charge of negotiations with Iran. According to the publication, the Trump administration wanted to discredit them in order to break the deal on the nuclear program.
• Israel, which opposes the deal with Iran, said in early May that the Iranian authorities had lied at the time of the deal, saying the country had never worked on a nuclear weapon. According to Israeli authorities, intelligence obtained documents about the existence of a program in Iran to create five warheads with a capacity of 10 kilotons of TNT.