Trump Contradicts State Department On Iran Deal

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump said Thursday that Iran hasn’t abided by the “spirit” of an international deal to curtail its nuclear program.

“Iran has not lived up to the spirit of the agreement,” Trump said at the White House during a joint press conference with the Italian prime minister.

Trump called the Iran deal terrible during his campaign for president last year, but his comment Thursday seemed to contradict what his own State Department said earlier in the week.

“The U.S. Department of State certified to U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan today that Iran is compliant through April 18th with its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” the department said on Tuesday, in the first compliance update to Congress under the terms of the deal. 

The State Department also said that “Iran remains a leading state sponsor of terror through many platforms and methods” and that the Trump administration is reviewing the deal. 

“I think they are doing a tremendous disservice to an agreement that was signed and it was a terrible agreement,” Trump said Thursday. “We are analyzing it very carefully and we’ll have something to say about it in the not too distant future.”

Under the deal, struck between Iran, China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S., Iran was required to significantly scale back its nuclear infrastructure in exchange for some sanctions relief, but is allowed to maintain a peaceful nuclear program.