EU/IRAN/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump is expected to announce on Tuesday [5-7-18] that he is withdrawing the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, European diplomats said after concluding that they had failed to convince him that reneging on America’s commitment to the pact could cast the West into new confrontation with Tehran. If the diplomats are correct, the announcement will be the most consequential national security decision of Mr. Trump’s 15 months in office — though it could be eclipsed in coming weeks by his direct negotiation with North Korea’s leader over surrendering its nuclear arsenal…At the heart of the deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program, which was reached in July 2015 after more than two and a half years of negotiation, lay a bold trade. The West would end three decades of sanctions and isolation of Tehran that had crippled the country’s economy and fueled domestic impatience with its clerical leaders. In return, Iran agreed to ship roughly 97 percent of its nuclear fuel out of the country, and forgo production of nuclear fuel, even for ostensibly peaceful purposes. The negotiation with Iran was the signature foreign policy achievement of the Obama administration, and throughout the 2016 campaign Mr. Trump called it a ‘disaster’ and ‘insane.'”
-David E. Sanger and Steven Erlanger, “Trump Is Expected to Leave Iran Deal, Allies Say,” The New York Times online, May 7, 2018