IRAN/NUCLEAR/SANCTIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump said on Wednesday [5-9-18] that he expects Iran to continue to comply with the terms of the 2015 deal that limits Tehran’s nuclear program, even as the United States violates it by reimposing what he called ‘among the strongest sanctions that we’ve ever put on a country…’ Beyond betting that Iran’s leaders will return to the negotiating table, and seek a better deal, once they feel the sanctions’ bite, the president appeared to acknowledge that he has no Plan B for dealing with Tehran…President Hassan Rouhani of Iran said on Tuesday [5-8-18] that he had instructed his foreign minister to determine if negotiators from European nations, Russia and China could make up for the economic benefits that Iran would lose after the American withdrawal. Only then would he decide, Mr. Rouhani said, whether to instruct Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization to resume the enrichment of uranium. Under the accord, Iran is prohibited through 2030 from possessing enough nuclear fuel to manufacture a single nuclear weapon.”
-David E. Sanger, “Trump Bets Sanctions Will Force Iran to Bargain. There’s No Plan B.,” The New York Times online, May 9, 2018