Administration officials vows to toughen enforcement of the deal and increase pressure on Tehran

U.S. President Donald Trump agreed on Monday to certify again that Iran is complying with an international nuclear agreement that he has strongly criticised, but only after hours of arguing with his top national security advisers, briefly upending a planned announcement as a legal deadline loomed.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly condemned the deal brokered by President Barack Obama as a dangerous capitulation to Iran, but six months into his presidency, he has not abandoned it. The decision on Monday was the second time his administration certified Iran’s compliance, and aides said a frustrated Mr. Trump had told his security team that he would not keep doing so indefinitely.

Administration officials announced the certification on Monday evening while emphasising that they intended to toughen enforcement of the deal, apply new sanctions on Iran for its “support of terrorism” and other “destabilising activities”, and negotiate with European partners to craft a broader strategy to increase pressure on Tehran.

Bad deal

“The President has made very clear that he thought this was a bad deal — a bad deal for the United States,” Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, told reporters at a briefing Monday before the decision was made.

By law, the administration is required to notify Congress every 90 days whether Iran is living up to the deal, which limited its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of many international sanctions.

Before the Monday deadline, the issue set off a sharp debate between the President and his own team, aides said.

At an hour-long meeting on Wednesday, all the President’s major security advisers recommended he preserve the Iran deal for now. Among those who spoke out were Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; Defense Secretary Jim Mattis; Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the National Security Adviser; and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to an official who described internal discussions on the condition of anonymity. The official said Mr. Trump had spent 55 minutes of the meeting telling them he did not want to.

Mr. Trump did not want to certify Iran’s compliance the first time around either, but was talked into it on the condition that his team come back with a new strategy to confront Tehran, the official said. Last week, advisers told the President they needed more time to work with allies and Congress. NYT