EU/FRANCE/GERMANY/IRAN/SANCTIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “For months, leaders from France, Germany and the United Kingdom — key signatories to the six-nation negotiating group that brokered the 2015 Obama-era Iran deal — had tried to persuade US President Donald Trump to stay or renegotiate the deal. But on Tuesday [5-8-18] afternoon, it appeared those efforts were wasted, as Trump announced he would allow sanctions to go forward on Iran, a first step in withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the JCPOA. In the announcement, Trump called it a ‘decaying and rotten,’ deal that was ‘an embarrassment’ to him ‘as a citizen.’ Many global leaders disagree. French President Emmanuel Macron first responded to the announcement on Twitter, writing that ‘France, Germany, and the UK regret the U.S. decision to leave the JCPOA. The nuclear non-proliferation regime is at stake…’ In Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed the decision on live television, saying the United States failed to live up to its international commitments under the JPCOA. Rouhani 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. Rouhani had warned last week that leaving the deal would be a ‘historic mistake.’ As leaders across the world criticized the decision, Israel praised Trump’s announcement.”
-Kara Fox, “European leaders ‘disappointed’ in Trump’s withdrawal from Iran deal,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 8, 2018 4:37 pm