Tillerson: President Trump will scorn but not bolt from Iran nuke deal

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will say on Friday the Iran nuclear deal is no longer in America's national security interests, but he won't withdraw from the landmark 2015 accord or immediately re-impose sanctions, U.S. officials said.

The announcement is essentially a compromise that allows President Trump to condemn an accord that he has repeatedly denounced as the worst deal in American history. But he stops well short of torpedoing the pact, which was negotiated over 18 months by the Obama administration, European allies and others.

Instead, President Trump will kick the issue over to Congress, asking lawmakers to come up with new legislation that would automatically re-impose sanctions should Iran cross any one of numerous nuclear and non-nuclear "trigger points," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said in remarks released ahead of President Trump's announcement.

Those "trigger points" would include violations of the deal involving illicit atomic work or ballistic missile testing, support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and other groups that destabilize the region, human rights abuses and cyber warfare, they said.

Congress will have 60 days to decide whether to snap the sanctions back into place, modify the law or do nothing. Any decision to re-impose sanctions would automatically kill America's participation in the deal.

In a White House speech on Friday afternoon, President Trump will notify Congress that he is "decertifying" the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, arguing that while Iran is complying with the letter of the agreement, the accord itself is not sufficient to be in U.S. interests.

"We don't dispute that they're under technical compliance," Tillerson said. "We've said the agreement has a number of weaknesses in it, and, in fact, one of the weaknesses is the standard to remain in technical compliance is not that difficult, or has not been that difficult for them to meet."

In remarks ahead of his address to a group of conservative voters, President Trump previewed his position by calling Iran "a terrorist nation like few others" and urged his audience to listen in.

Both defenders of the Iran nuclear deal and critics are likely to be displeased by President Trump's decision. Those who support the deal believe President Trump's move will badly damage U.S. credibility in future international negotiations, while opponents think he does not go far enough in unraveling the accord.

President Trump will urge lawmakers to codify tough new requirements for Tehran to continue to benefit from the sanctions relief that it won in exchange for curbing its atomic program, according to Tillerson. And he'll announce his long-anticipated intent to impose sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps by designating it a terrorist organization under an existing executive order.

"The reckless behavior of the Iranian regime, and the IRGC in particular, poses one of the most dangerous threats to the interests of the United States and to regional stability," the White House said in a statement. The statement denounced the Obama administration for its "myopic focus on Iran's nuclear program to the exclusion of the regime's many other malign activities" and said the same "mistakes" would not be repeated.

Ali Larijani, Iran's parliament speaker, said Friday that any U.S. move against a nuclear deal with Iran would be an "insult" to the United Nations because the U.N. had given the deal its blessing.

He added that any revision of the deal would allow Iran to take its own actions, and warned that the U.S. move could destabilize the international situation.

"We will continue to adhere to our obligations ... for as long as other parties observe the agreement," he said on a visit to Russia.

In his speech, President Trump also will ask Congress to amend or replace legislation that currently requires him to certify Iranian compliance every 90 days. Officials have said that President Trump hates the requirement more than the nuclear deal itself because it forces him to take a position every three months on the deal. That frequency hassend also irritated aides who have complained that they are spending inordinate amounts of time on certification at the expense of other issues.

American allies, who have pressed the White House to remain in the nuclear accord, will be closely watching the president's address. President Trump wants to impress on the European parties to the accord — Germany, France and Britain — the importance of fixing what he sees as flaws in the nuclear accord and addressing malign behavior not covered in the agreement.

The Europeans, along with the other parties, Iran, Russia and China, have ruled out reopening the deal. But some, notably France, have signaled a willingness to tackle unresolved issues in supplementary negotiations.

Among those issues are the expiration of several restrictions on advanced nuclear activity under so-called "sunset clauses" that will allow Iran to begin ramping up its enrichment capabilities after 10 years, the end of an arms embargo and the eventual easing of demands for a halt to its missile program.

In the speech, President Trump hopes to "recruit" the Europeans into joining his broad strategy, particularly by punishing the Revolutionary Guard, which he and his national security team believe is fomenting instability, violence and extremism throughout the Middle East and beyond, according to one official.

In anticipation of PresidentTrump's announcements, Republican legislators have drawn up a new version of the law replacing the current 90-day timetable with "semi-annual" certifications, according to drafts seen by the Associated Press this week.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker said in a statement on Friday that his panel had agreed to fresh certification criteria to include items that are also the province of the U.N. nuclear watchdog and require the U.S. intelligence community to determine if Iran is carrying out illicit activity in facilities to which the International Atomic Energy Agency has not had access.