Personal politics, hatred for Obama are behind Trump's aversion of JCPOA - U.S. expert to Interfax
WASHINGTON. Oct 17 (Interfax) - U.S. Donald Trump's threats to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal portend war with Iran, President of the Washington-based National Iranian American Council Trita Parsi said.
Last week, Trump refused to certify Iran's compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA) and threatened to withdraw from the deal.
"The nuclear deal in the end of the day took two very negative scenarios off the table: the scenario of the Iranians having access to a bomb and the scenario of the United States going to war with Iran. Eliminating the deal puts these two very bad scenarios back onto the table," Parsi said in an interview with Interfax.
"I don't see any national security reasons for him to do it," he said.
"I see reasons that have more to do with his personal politics, his hatred for Obama, his desire to appease some of the big donors that are supporting his super PACs, and it is the Israelis and the Saudis," Parsi said.
"So, I don't see any security justification for what he is doing, because what is he doing is really putting the United States at risk. This is a recipe for disaster, a self-destructive act that risking undoing years of careful diplomatic efforts," he said.
'Hardliners' in Iran will benefit from Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, he said. "They have already come out and said that this is a gift to them. They are seeing how [Iranian President Hassan] Rouhani will be weakened internally as a result of this. And Iran that starts to go back to a more 'hardline' position obviously is going to have a significant impact on the rest of the region as well. And one thing I think is quite certain is that Iran is going to have a much tougher regional policy going forward as a result of this," Parsi said.
The full text of the interview will appear at www.interfax.com.