Trump could stay in Iran deal but seek revisions: Lincoln Bloomfield
Iran has reportedly hinted that it will attempt to keep the nuclear deal in place and limit America’s influence in the Middle East even if President Donald Trump decides to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 accord.
“Iran has no interest at all in being friends with the United States,” retired Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield told FOX Business’ David Asman. “They are burning up the Middle East in every direction.”
Trump took to Twitter on Monday to say that he will announce his decision on the Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday. He faces a May 12 deadline over whether to uphold the Obama administration’s nuclear deal.
John Kerry, former Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, helped broker the deal and has strategized with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran to salvage the agreement.
Trump slammed Kerry over “shadow diplomacy” and blamed him for orchestrating this “mess.”
“The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!,” the president said on Twitter Monday.
Bloomfield said the Iranians must be well aware that the former Senator of Massachusetts is not very influential with the Trump administration.
“I wonder of Mr. Kerry understands that Zarif, the Foreign Minister of Iran, really doesn’t carry much weight with the supreme leader of Iran,” he said.
The retired ambassador will testify on Tuesday before the House Foreign Relations Committee about the Iran deal. Bloomfield said he wouldn’t object to President Trump revising the current deal with a much stronger policy.
“I have no problem if [Trump] says, we’ll stick to the deal, but it doesn’t cover enough,” he said. “So we are going to take care of ballistic missiles, we’re going to take care of human rights.”