US President-elect will “review” the Iran nuclear agreement, but will stop short of ripping up the landmark international pact, a senior adviser said on Thursday.
Walid Phares, one of Trump’s top foreign policy advisers, also signaled that Trump might not move the US Embassy to al-Quds (Jerusalem) immediately and indicated he would make negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal a priority right off the bat.
The comments appeared to represent a break with some comments made by other Trump advisers and the president-elect himself, and highlighted persisting confusion over what the contours of a Trump administration’s foreign policy may look like.
Speaking to BBC Radio on Thursday, Phares said the nuclear deal, which Trump has railed against and vowed to dismantle, would instead be renegotiated with Tehran.
“Ripping up is maybe a too strong of word, he’s gonna take that agreement, it’s been done before in international context, and then review it,” he said, according to a CNN recording of the interview.
“He will take the agreement, review it, send it to Congress, demand from the Iranians to restore a few issues or change a few issues, and there will be a discussion,” he added.
“It could be a tense discussion but the agreement as is right now — $750 billion to the Iranian regime without receiving much in return and increasing intervention in four countries — that is not going to be accepted by the Trump administration.”
During the election campaign, Trump described the nuclear deal as “disastrous” and said it would be his “number one priority” to dismantle it
Source: Agencies
