Our live coverage has ended. Scroll through the posts below to read about Trump’s announcement.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said UK, France and Germany support the US’ objectives on the Iran Deal.
But Mnuchin said the US has “slightly different views as to how to execute that.”
The President, he said, has been clear about his thoughts on the deal.
Watch the moment:
Saudi Arabia says it “supports and welcomes” President Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Iran deal, and backs his plan to reinstate sanctions on the regime.
Saudi Arabia, in a statement, also said:
A senior State Department official acknowledged to reporters the US did not discuss any “Plan B” with European partners ahead of President Trump’s announcement Tuesday that the US would be pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement.
The official said that while the US and European partners made a “ton of progress” in attempting to reach a supplemental agreement that would satisfy President Trump ahead of the May 12 waiver deadline, they were not able to resolve the sticking point presented by the sunset issue.
The same official said sanctions would be implemented in two phases with the intention of giving countries and companies time to adjust:
All JCPOA-related sanctions waivers are pulled today, including those that were set to expire on July 11, so today is the start of both “wind down” periods.
Two senior State Department officials said talks are ongoing with European allies and the US still hopes to reach a comprehensive deal on countering Iran’s malign activities through a “global effort,” but the officials did not rule out secondary sanctions targeting European companies.
“We do think that, given the (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’) penetration of the Iranian economy and Iran’s behavior in the region, as well as its other nefarious activities, that companies should not do business in Iran,” one of the officials said. “That’s an intended consequence.”
The officials said the US believes the Iran nuclear deal has given Iran room to increase its so-called “malign activities” in the Middle East since it was reached in 2015.
Former Vice President Joe Biden reacted today to President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran deal, calling it “a profound mistake.”
“It will isolate the United States from nearly every major world power,” he said in a statement. “It will weaken our credibility and global leadership. It will allow Iran to garner international sympathy while doing nothing to reduce its harmful activities across the Middle East.”
Here’s Biden’s statement:
“All it will likely accomplish is to put Iran back on the path to a nuclear weapon with no clear diplomatic way out. This wholly unnecessary crisis could ultimately put the safety of our country and our fellow citizens, including thousands of men and women in uniform serving across the Middle East, at risk by setting us back on a path to war with Iran.
We should continue to work with our allies and partners to counter Iran’s ability to subvert Israel and other partners in the region. However, the deal provided a long-term check on Iran’s pathways to a nuclear bomb, buying us critical time and space to address the regime’s other destabilizing activities.
The fact is that the agreement has been working to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The International Atomic Energy Agency says so. Our allies in Europe say so. Even the Trump administration has consistently certified Iran’s compliance, a fact confirmed by now-Secretary of State Pompeo’s testimony just last month.
Talk of a “better deal” is an illusion. It took years of sanctions pressure, painstaking diplomacy, and the full support of the international community to achieve that goal. We have none of that in place today.
President Trump’s decision will do the opposite of what he says he intends. It will free up Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon and ultimately force us into a binary choice between engaging in a new military conflict or living with a nuclear-armed adversary, both of which pose grave national security risks. And it puts us at odds with our closest European allies, who repeatedly urged the United States to honor the agreement.
As a result, President Trump has manufactured a crisis for his own political interests that puts us on a collision course not only with an adversary but also with our closest partners. It is just the latest example of how President Trump’s notion of “America First” will leave America more alone and less secure.”
President Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Iran deal sparked outrage from Democrats and at least some criticism from his own party.
Here’s what lawmakers are saying:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told CNN that he fears that “new crises” will break out in the Middle East as a result of the US abandoning the Iran deal.
“We don’t need new crises in the region,” Erdoğan told CNN’s Becky Anderson, adding that President Trump’s decision is not just going to impact the region, but the entire world.
Erdoğan said Trump’s move will put the entire world economy at stake.
“That is the reason why as Turkey, we will be hit … and the United States might gain some certain positivity out of the withdrawal of this…or the rising oil prices … but many of the countries, in poverty, will be hit even harder and deeper,” he said.
When asked if he has concerns of a geopolitical war breaking out as a result, Erdoğan said, “that’s not what we would wish to see, of course … this is not what we’d like to expect.”
Erdoğan said Trump should have respected the agreement, signed by the previous administration.
“This is not how the international mechanisms work,” he said. “International covenants and international conventions, cannot be annulled upon will. If any document is bearing your signature, you need to respect that. You need to abide by that.”
Republican Sen. Jeff Flake told CNN’s Jake Tapper today that he doesn’t think President Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal is “a wise move.”
“I just don’t think that it’s a wise move,” the Arizona lawmaker said.
Flake said he does not believe the country is safer as a result of the action.
The US State Department issued a security warning for American citizens on Tuesday, urging them to “consider carefully” when traveling to the Golan Heights “until the situation stabilizes.”
The State Department employees must also seek permission before traveling to the Golan Heights, situated in northern Israel, right next to Syria.
Israel opened up bomb shelters in the Golan Heights on Tuesday evening after the defense forces said “irregular activity of Iranian forces in Syria” was detected.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is also on high alert in the area, and defense systems have been deployed.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he had ordered the country’s “atomic industry organization to be fully prepared for subsequent measures if needed so that in case of need we will start our industrial enrichment without limitations.”
Rouhani spoke live on television following President Trump’s announcement that the US was withdrawing from Iran nuclear deal.
Barack Obama, who was president when the Iran deal was negotiated in 2015, released a lengthy statement, calling Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal “misguided.”
“We have been safer in the years since we achieved the JCPOA,” referring to the deal’s official title, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Here’s part of his statement:
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was asked whether Democratic lawmakers would support the idea of the Senate possibly implementing sanctions against Iran.
“I don’t know how the plan works by dividing our allies. What do you do with the (International Atomic Energy Agency)? How are you really going to enforce these sanctions with other countries? I just don’t see a concrete plan emerging.”
Schumer said he asked Vice President Mike Pence earlier today lots of questions about the deal, but “didn’t get good answers.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Iran will take a few weeks to decide how to respond to the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran deal.
Rouhani added that with the US withdrawal, the agreement now existed between Iran and five other countries.
He said Iran would abide by its commitments while it consults with the other signatories to the JPCOA. Rouhani also accused Trump of conducting psychological warfare against the Iranian people and said Iran would not allow him to triumph in exerting economic pressure on the country.
Former secretary of state John Kerry said President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran deal “weakens our security” and “breaks America’s word.”
He tweeted his full statement:
Kerry was reportedly trying to save the deal. He met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif at the United Nations in New York two weeks ago, their second meeting in about two months, to discuss ways of keeping the deal limiting Iran’s nuclear weapons program intact, according to two sources familiar with the interactions.
The former secretary of state also met last month with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, separately sat down with French President Emmanuel Macron and spoke on the phone with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, the sources told CNN.
Russia is “disappointed” in US President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran deal, Dmitry Polyansky, a deputy Russian ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters today.
When asked if Russia will call a UN Security Council meeting regarding the US decision, he said, “all the options are on the table.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May said she “regrets” the US withdrawal from the Iran deal in a joint statement with the UK, Germany and France.
A Downing Street spokesperson said:
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the US failed to live up to its international commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran deal.
Rouhani, speaking in a live television address from Tehran, added that the agreement was not a bilateral agreement between the United States and Iran, but rather a multilateral international agreement endorsed by the UN Security Council.
In a briefing with reporters following President Trump’s remarks on exiting the Iran deal, national security adviser John Bolton reiterated Trump’s message: “We’re out of the deal, we’re out. We’re out of the deal.”
Bolton argued that the decision will have broader implications for US national security, saying the withdrawal sends a message to Kim Jong Un ahead of their meeting.
“Another aspect of the withdraw that was announced today was to establish positions of strength for the United States and it will have implications not simply for Iran but the forthcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un in North Korea, sends a very clear signal that the United States will not accept inadequate deals,” he said.
The Treasury Department will be taking “immediate action” to implement President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
The agency said sanctions will be reimposed subject to certain 90-day and 180-day wind-down periods. Once the wind-down period has finalized, sanctions will come back into full effect. Those sanctions include both the US primary and secondary sanction authorities.
“We will continue to work with our allies to build an agreement that is truly in the best interest of our long-term national security,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement.
He said the US will cut off Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ access to capital to fund Iranian malign activity, including:
There are increasing concerns Iran is on the cusp of an attack against Israel, several US military officials tell CNN.
Intelligence is not clear on when an attack could come and what form it would take, these officials tell CNN.
The US is watching very closely to see if Iranian-backed actions could come from inside Syria or Lebanon, or even from inside Iran itself, though that would be considered a major military escalation.
The Israeli army has instructed authorities in the Golan Heights, in the north of the country, to open civilian shelters after detecting what it calls “irregular activity” of Iranian forces in Syria.
In a statement, the army says its troops are on high alert for an attack and defense systems have been deployed. The statement warned that “any aggression against Israel will be met with a severe response.” The statement goes on to say that “the Israeli public should remain attentive to IDF instructions that will be given if necessary.
The US-led coalition fighting ISIS inside Syria said today that that they have seen “no change” in behavior of Iranian backed forces inside Syria in recent days.
