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Trump’s defence chief backs Iran nuclear deal
Jim Mattis, US secretary of defence, has expressed support for the historic nuclear deal with Iran, just days before Donald Trump is set to rule on an agreement he has called an “embarrassment” and threatened to rip up.
“Yes, senator, I do,” Mr Mattis said during congressional testimony when asked if he believed the 2015 deal, in which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for limited sanctions relief, remained in the US national security interest.
The administration has yet to unveil its Iran policy, more than eight months after Mr Trump took office, as the president weighs whether to abide by a deal also signed by European allies, Russia and China and endorsed by the UN Security Council.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said Iran is in compliance with the agreement but Mr Trump has sought to put pressure on the deal as part of a tougher approach to Iran. If Mr Trump does not recertify the agreement at 90 day intervals — the next of which is due by October 15 — Congress under the law has 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Tehran. Such a step would likely be the end of the nuclear deal.
“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,” Mr Mattis told the Senate hearing. “Absent indications to the contrary, it is something that the president should consider staying with.”
But he also appeared to separate any endorsement of whether Iran is in compliance with the deal from whether Mr Trump should recertify it to Congress as being in the national interest.
Mr Mattis also noted Iran’s “misconduct” in the region, including its ballistic missiles programme and links with militant groups such as Hamas and Hizbollah.
Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, last week told the FT that he expected Mr Trump not to recertify the agreement. If the deal collapsed, he said, Iran would no longer have to abide by its limitations — which include curbs on uranium enrichment, centrifuge numbers and the production of plutonium.
“You either live by it, or you set it aside,” Mr Zarif said of the agreement. “You cannot be half pregnant.”
Mr Mattis’ testimony was primarily focused on US policy in Afghanistan, where Washington is seeking to develop a response to a resurgent Taliban and the threat of Isis.
The new approach, unveiled in August, involves sending more than 3,000 additional US troops to the war-torn country, taking the total above 14,000. This followed protracted internal wrangling as Mr Trump battled his own preference for withdrawal from America’s longest running military conflict.
US troop numbers reached 100,000 at their peak, before the numbers were reduced dramatically under former President Barack Obama.
Speaking of the withdrawal, General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said during the congressional testimony, “we drew down our advisory effort too far and too fast,” adding that the Afghanistan campaign lost momentum as a result.
US military officials have welcomed the new approach, which will deploy combat troops alongside Afghan tactical units. Mr Mattis said the US was already “starting to see the psychological impact” of the new strategy and in Afghan commitment to reform the corruption that undermines the pursuit of stability.
But John McCain, chairman of the senate armed services committee, said it was “totally unacceptable” that the Trump administration had yet to supply crucial details of how it will conduct the war. “After 16 years should the taxpayers of America be satisfied that we are still in a ‘stalemate’? I don’t think so,” he said.
Mr McCain also said a compelling case had not been made why a modest increase in US forces would produce battlefield results or lasting stability. The new Afghanistan policy involves working more closely with India and taking a harsher approach to Pakistan, which Mr Trump has accused of harbouring terrorists. Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Pakistan foreign minister, is due in Washington for talks this week.
Jim Mattis, US secretary of defence, has expressed support for the historic nuclear deal with Iran, just days before Donald Trump is set to rule on an agreement he has called an “embarrassment” and threatened to rip up.
“Yes, senator, I do,” Mr Mattis said during congressional testimony when asked if he believed the 2015 deal, in which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for limited sanctions relief, remained in the US national security interest.
The administration has yet to unveil its Iran policy, more than eight months after Mr Trump took office, as the president weighs whether to abide by a deal also signed by European allies, Russia and China and endorsed by the UN Security Council.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said Iran is in compliance with the agreement but Mr Trump has sought to put pressure on the deal as part of a tougher approach to Iran. If Mr Trump does not recertify the agreement at 90 day intervals — the next of which is due by October 15 — Congress under the law has 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Tehran. Such a step would likely be the end of the nuclear deal.
“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,” Mr Mattis told the Senate hearing. “Absent indications to the contrary, it is something that the president should consider staying with.”
But he also appeared to separate any endorsement of whether Iran is in compliance with the deal from whether Mr Trump should recertify it to Congress as being in the national interest.
Mr Mattis also noted Iran’s “misconduct” in the region, including its ballistic missiles programme and links with militant groups such as Hamas and Hizbollah.
Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, last week told the FT that he expected Mr Trump not to recertify the agreement. If the deal collapsed, he said, Iran would no longer have to abide by its limitations — which include curbs on uranium enrichment, centrifuge numbers and the production of plutonium.
“You either live by it, or you set it aside,” Mr Zarif said of the agreement. “You cannot be half pregnant.”
Mr Mattis’ testimony was primarily focused on US policy in Afghanistan, where Washington is seeking to develop a response to a resurgent Taliban and the threat of Isis.
The new approach, unveiled in August, involves sending more than 3,000 additional US troops to the war-torn country, taking the total above 14,000. This followed protracted internal wrangling as Mr Trump battled his own preference for withdrawal from America’s longest running military conflict.
US troop numbers reached 100,000 at their peak, before the numbers were reduced dramatically under former President Barack Obama.
Speaking of the withdrawal, General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said during the congressional testimony, “we drew down our advisory effort too far and too fast,” adding that the Afghanistan campaign lost momentum as a result.
US military officials have welcomed the new approach, which will deploy combat troops alongside Afghan tactical units. Mr Mattis said the US was already “starting to see the psychological impact” of the new strategy and in Afghan commitment to reform the corruption that undermines the pursuit of stability.
But John McCain, chairman of the senate armed services committee, said it was “totally unacceptable” that the Trump administration had yet to supply crucial details of how it will conduct the war. “After 16 years should the taxpayers of America be satisfied that we are still in a ‘stalemate’? I don’t think so,” he said.
Mr McCain also said a compelling case had not been made why a modest increase in US forces would produce battlefield results or lasting stability. The new Afghanistan policy involves working more closely with India and taking a harsher approach to Pakistan, which Mr Trump has accused of harbouring terrorists. Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Pakistan foreign minister, is due in Washington for talks this week.
