Trump's Iran Nuclear Deal Withdrawal: What Happened
Explore why Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, calling it 'the worst deal ever,' and what he sought as alternative terms.
In May 2018, President Donald Trump made a consequential decision that would reshape American foreign policy in the Middle East: he announced the United States' withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal. This dramatic move represented one of the most significant foreign policy reversals in recent American history, with far-reaching implications for international diplomacy, regional stability, and global nuclear non-proliferation efforts. Trump's decision to pull out of the agreement sent shockwaves through the international community and fundamentally altered the landscape of U.S.-Iran relations for years to come.
The JCPOA itself was an extraordinarily complex international agreement that had been painstakingly negotiated over nearly two decades of diplomatic efforts. The deal was finalized in July 2015 under the Obama administration and involved not just the United States and Iran, but also other major world powers including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the European Union. This multilateral framework represented a major diplomatic breakthrough, bringing together nations with vastly different geopolitical interests around a single objective: preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons while allowing it limited nuclear capabilities for peaceful, civilian purposes.
Trump had been vocally critical of the JCPOA since before he took office, viewing it as fundamentally flawed and insufficiently rigorous in its verification mechanisms. Once president, he made clear his intention to withdraw, repeatedly branding the accord as
Source: Al Jazeera
