Five ways Donald Trump's decision to tear up the Iran deal just made us less safe Donald Trump just made the Iranian supreme leader look honest and Iran like a reliable partner.

Jon B. Wolfsthal | Opinion contributor

Show Caption Hide Caption Trump pulls U.S. from Iran nuclear deal, returns to sanctions President Trump made an announcement from the White House, keeping his campaign promise, that the United States would withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal. John Fritze reports.

Donald Trump just made America weaker and less safe, and may have opened the lid to a nuclear Pandora’s box in the Middle East.

For five years, then-President Obama negotiated and built the most intrusive, comprehensive and detailed verification obligations on Iran in history. Now, those achievements and the benefits they brought are crumbling. America has violated an agreement not only with an Iran that is keeping its part of the bargain, but also with our closest allies: the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the European Union, as well as with Russia and China.

Trump claims he wants a better deal, one that will constrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions and also address Iran’s missile and regional activities. But the president has shattered global unity, leaving no way to recreate the kind of pressure that forced Iran to end its nuclear efforts in 2015.

And even if there were, why would Iran accept a new agreement with America after having done so with this result? Trump just made the Iranian supreme leader look honest and Iran like a reliable state. No small task. The Iranian people has been taught for a generation that America can’t be trusted, and Trump just proved them right.

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There are many reasons withdrawing the United States from the Iran agreement makes America less safe — here are just a few:

►Iran can now rid itself of all but the most basic nuclear inspections. As a member of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Iran is required to accept a basic level of nuclear inspections. However, Iran had been under 24-hour, seven-days-a-week surveillance at key sites; had hundreds of inspectors at its facilities; and was prohibited from expanding its uranium enrichment work beyond 5,060 enrichment machines known as centrifuges, having any uranium enriched beyond 3.67% (to make a bomb, more than 90% enrichment levels are needed), or possessing any more than 300 kilograms of uranium for 15 years (far less than needed for even one bomb). Iran can now, at any time and without any notification to the world, possess as many centrifuges and as much uranium at as high an enrichment level as it choose. This could put it weeks away from building a nuclear weapon.

►Several states have made clear over the years that if Iran is able to build a nuclear weapon, they will do the same. Saudi Arabia's crown prince just told American reporters in March that his country would. Turkey, likewise, has indicated for years that it will match any capability Iran has. America reportedly deploys nuclear weapons in Turkey, and while we are told they are secure, the air base at which they are stored was a battle ground in the coup in Turkey in 2016. It is only a matter of time before there are multiple states with the ability to build nuclear weapons in the Middle East. We are likely to see a mobilization race that could make the origins of World War I seem cute by comparison. It is not clear how any of this makes America safer, let alone Israel.

► North Korea is watching. While the odds are against it, Kim Jong Un could be sincere in stating that he wants to negotiate away his considerable nuclear weapons and missile capabilities. He asked for a meeting with Trump, and the meeting looks likely to take place in June. If, on the off chance, Kim is for real — how or why would he take the word of the U.S. president for any deal he might negotiate? If the goal is to provide North Korea with security assurances should it denuclearize, what does Trump tearing up the deal of his predecessor say about America’s word from here on out? The odds of a negotiated nuclear deal in North Korea just dropped from low to minuscule, and our South Korean allies are increasingly going to question both our leadership and judgment.

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►America has led the effort to stop or slow proliferation for decades. We helped bring about the global legal regime that supports inspections, sanctions, verification and benefits for states who comply with their obligations. In this, we have been the essential state and provided leadership over both Democratic and Republican administrations and Congresses. After the invasion of Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that did not exist in 2003, the United States spent a decade working to restore our credibility and leadership. Trump just tore that up, too, and it will be hard, if not impossible, to ever restore that credibility.

►It is not just all about nuclear weapons. When the American president gives his word or negotiates a deal, it has to mean something, or our leadership across a full range of complex global issues suffers. After withdrawing from the Paris climate change agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, America is isolated in trade and climate science. Now, with the destruction of the Iran accord, America will be isolated on security affairs as well. Who would take any U.S. president's word for anything in the future? Unless implemented by treaty, I fear fewer deals will be struck, costing America dearly.

Of course, when the war to end Iran’s nuclear program comes — the most likely outcome in the next few years — it won’t be Trump’s family that fights and dies. But by then, he will blame someone else for the failure of Iran to negotiate a new deal with the state that just tore up the last best chance to end Iran’s nuclear efforts peacefully. It is the rest of us who will have to live with the consequences.

Jon B. Wolfsthal, former senior director for arms control and non-proliferation at the National Security Council, is director of the Nuclear Crisis Group and senior adviser to Global Zero. Follow him on Twitter: @JBWolfsthal.