WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump has described the Iran nuclear agreement as “one of the dumbest deals I have ever seen” in an interview with The Times of London.
But Trump, who will be inaugurated on Friday as the 45th US president, refused to say whether he would tear up Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran.
“I’m not happy with the Iran deal, I think it’s one of the worst deals ever made,” he said.
Trump also criticized Russia’s intervention in Syria’s civil war which, along with the help of Iran, has tilted the conflict in President Bashar Assad’s favor.
“I think it’s a very rough thing,” Trump said of Russian intervention in Syria in the interview. “Aleppo has been such a terrible humanitarian situation.”
The war has killed more than 300,000 people and created the world’s worst refugee crisis .
Trump said he will propose offering to end sanctions imposed on Russia over its annexation of Crimea in return for a nuclear arms reduction deal with Moscow.
Criticizing previous US foreign policy in the interview, he described the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 as possibly the gravest error in the history of the US and akin to “throwing rocks into a beehive.”
President Obama, meanwhile, marked the first anniversary of the nuclear deal by emphasizing its “significant and concrete results” and warning against undoing a pact supported by the world’s major powers.
In language that seemed clearly directed at Trump, a White House statement said “the US must remember that this agreement was the result of years of work, and represents an agreement between the world’s major powers — not simply the US and Iran.”
It said the deal had “achieved significant, concrete results in making the US and the world a safer place” and “verifiably prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
Such a diplomatic solution, it added, was “far preferable to an unconstrained Iranian nuclear program or another war in the Middle East.”
The White House insisted on Monday that despite US reservations about other actions by Iran — including its support for “violent proxies” and “terrorist groups” — Tehran was upholding its nuclear commitments.
Iran, it said, had “reduced its uranium stockpile by 98 percent and removed two-thirds of its centrifuges.”
The White House stance was backed up by a statement from Secretary of State John Kerry, who helped negotiate the deal.
The agreement, Kerry said, had “resolved a major nuclear threat without firing a shot or sending a single soldier into combat. It was endorsed unanimously by the UN Security Council and earned the support of more than 100 countries across the globe.”
For all of Trump’s sharp criticism of Iran and the nuclear deal, his policy once in office remains unclear.
One of his top Cabinet nominees, retired Marine general James Mattis, said last week that if he is confirmed as defense secretary, he will support the nuclear deal.
“When America gives her word,” he told senators during his confirmation hearing, “we have to live up to it and work with our allies.”
Also on Monday, EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini insisted the bloc will stand by the Iran nuclear accord because it serves Europe’s security needs.
“It is proof that diplomacy works and delivers... The European Union will continue to work for the respect and implementation of this extremely important deal, most of all for our security,” Mogherini said as she went into an EU foreign ministers’ meeting.
Mogherini said she would not comment on Trump’s remarks, but claimed that much had been accomplished.
The agreement “has delivered both on the nuclear-related commitments Iran took and on the firm determination of the international community to fully implement this deal,” she said.
As far as the EU was concerned, the accord had resulted in increased trade and economic ties, “which is really significant,” she added.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who spoke to the press ahead of the EU ministers’ meeting, also said the accord must be maintained.
He said it had been “a difficult and controversial deal, but one which has stopped the Iranians from acquiring nuclear technology they might otherwise have acquired, and it is a deal which we think has great merit and we want to keep going.”
Trump: Iran nuke pact ‘one of the dumbest deals I have ever seen’
Trump: Iran nuke pact ‘one of the dumbest deals I have ever seen’
Afghanistan launches retaliatory attacks on Pakistan as tensions escalate
- At least 66 Afghans have been killed by Pakistan’s strikes, Afghan authorities say
- Afghanistan has called for dialogue while Pakistan ruled out any talks with Kabul
KABUL: Afghanistan has launched new attacks on Pakistan’s military bases, the Afghan defense ministry said on Saturday, as cross-border clashes escalated between the neighbors after months of tension.
The latest flare-up erupted after Pakistan’s airstrikes on Afghan territory last weekend triggered a retaliatory offensive from Afghanistan along the border on Thursday.
The two countries have engaged in tit-for-tat attacks since, marking the most serious development in ongoing tensions between the two countries, which agreed to a ceasefire last October following a week of deadly clashes.
Afghanistan’s Air Force has “once again launched airstrikes on Pakistani military bases” in Miranshah and Spinwam, the Afghan Ministry of National Defense said on X on Saturday, claiming that the strikes caused “severe damage and heavy casualties.”
“These successful operations were conducted in response to repeated aerial aggressions by the Pakistani military regime,” the ministry said.
Afghan forces also launched similar strikes against military targets in Islamabad and Abbottabad on Friday, which the ministry said was in retaliation of aerial attacks by Pakistani forces in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia.
At least 66 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Pakistani strikes, with another 59 others wounded, according to Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesman for the Afghan government.
Pakistan has maintained that it is targeting only military targets to avoid any civilian casualties, in compliance with international law.
Pakistani officials said its forces have killed more than 330 Afghan fighters and targeted 37 military locations across Afghanistan.
Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesperson for the Afghan government, earlier called for talks to resolve the crisis.
“We have always emphasized peaceful resolution, and now too we want the issue to be resolved through dialogue,” he said on Friday.
However, Pakistan has ruled out any talks with Kabul.
“There won’t be any talks, there is nothing to talk about. There’s no negotiation. Terrorism from Afghanistan has to end,” Mosharraf Zaidi, spokesperson for Pakistan’s prime minister, said on Friday.
Pakistan is accusing the Afghan Taliban of sheltering fighters from the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and allowing them to stage cross-border attacks — a charge Afghanistan denies, saying it does not allow its territory to be used against other countries.
As international calls for mediation grow amid the escalating hostility, Afghans across the country are growing fearful of the violence.
“Everyone heard the jets. This is the first time since the withdrawal of US invaders that we have heard such a horrible noise and news of damage. It is not good for us,” said Kandahar resident Shahid Zamari.
“We had forgotten the US war and its bad impact on us, on our families, on our children. And now this has come upon us again — by Pakistan, and in the holy month of Ramadan.”
When the strikes hit Kabul at around 1:30 a.m. on Friday, Saleema Wardak moved quickly to wake up her six children and escape outside, assuming the strong jolt that shook her house was an earthquake.
“While standing in the yard, my husband told me it was not an earthquake but an explosion. Then we heard the crazy sounds of planes, and shooting from the mountains against the planes,” she told Arab News.
“We hid inside, worried another bomb would fall on us. People say Pakistan is targeting civilians on purpose to increase pressure on the Taliban. So we hid … The world is unjust … They do not value the blood of the poor.”
For Sabawoon, a 23-year-old student from eastern Kunar province’s Asadabad city, the coming days are filled with uncertainties.
“What to do? Where to go? We have to stay and find our way to survive,” he told Arab News. “God willing, nothing bad will happen to us. If they are bombing us, what can we do?”
