U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday the United States should consider staying in the Iran nuclear deal unless it were proven Tehran that was not abiding by the agreement or that it was not in the U.S. national interest to do so.
Though Mattis deferred to U.S. President Donald Trump’s review of the agreement, the defense secretary’s view was nonetheless far more positive than Trump who has called the deal agreed between Iran and six world powers in 2015 an “embarrassment”.
Trump is weighing whether the deal serves U.S. security interests as he faces a mid-October deadline for certifying that Iran is complying with the pact, a decision that could sink an agreement strongly supported by the other world powers that negotiated it.
“The point I would make is that if we can confirm that Iran is living by the agreement, if we can determine that this is in our best interest, then clearly we should stay with it,” Mattis told a Senate hearing.
”I believe at this point in time, absent indications to the contrary, it is something that the president should consider staying with,” Mattis added.
Source: Al-Manar Website
