Susan Rice Slams «Wrecking Ball» Trump for Leaving Iran Deal

Local Editor

Susan Rice, President Obama's former national security adviser, said President Trump has destroyed any chance of reining in Iran's nuclear program by leaving the nuclear agreement championed by the Obama administration.

"The president has just made the most foolish and consequential national security decision of his tenure," she wrote in an editorial for the New York Times.

"Exactly what comes next is unclear, but we certainly will face a far worse situation than today," she said. "When the mess materializes, Mr. Trump, per standard procedure, will blame everyone else: his political opponents, his predecessor, the Europeans and the Iranians."

"But there will be only one person responsible: President Trump, our wrecking ball in chief," she added.

Trump exited the deal after months of warnings that he would take that step unless the deal were dramatically improved. He said it needs language to stop Iran from developing ballistic missiles and sowing unrest in the region, and also to corral Iran's nuclear program after certain requirements in the deal expire.

But European allies declined to go as far as Trump wanted, and he pulled out.

The Trump administration has argued that leaving the deal will help convince North Korea the US needs real concessions to finalize any agreement to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, but Rice disagreed.

"Instead, he is demonstrating to a far more advanced and unpredictable adversary on the eve of negotiations that the United States cannot be trusted," she said. "He has provided proximate proof that any deal the United States makes, even a successful one, may be tossed aside on the whim of this or any other president."

The Iran nuclear agreement was never ratified by the US Senate.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team