Trump angry with Iran's commitment to nuclear deal: US analyst

Steve Benen wrote in msnbc website, 'Donald Trump has an important problem: a major U.S. foreign policy is working exactly as designed, and he wishes it weren’t.'

He said, 'As a presidential candidate, Trump had convinced himself that the international nuclear agreement with Iran was a disaster. As a president, however, Trump has discovered that the policy is working quite well, and the conflict between what’s true and what he wants to be true has apparently infuriated the easily confused president.'

'Trump’s new goal is to start with the answer that makes him feel better, and then have his staff reverse-engineer the evidence to arrive at the conclusion he prefers,' he added.

Benen said that Trump desperately wants to believe the agreement isn’t working, and when the facts point in a direction that makes him uncomfortable, 'Trump assumes the facts must be wrong – because his assumptions must be right'.

Looking ahead, the White House appears to be committed to finding “proof” that comports with Trump’s demands, which means the future of the successful Iran deal is very much in peril.

As White House anti-Iran comments soar, Foreign Policy wrote a few days ago that Trump is clearly upset that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told him 'he had no choice but to certify Iran was in compliance.'

The president assigned White House staffers with the task of preparing for the possibility of decertification for the 90-day review period that ends in October — a task he had previously given to Secretary Tillerson and the State Department,” a source close to the White House told Foreign Policy.

Foreign Policy wrote, 'Trump’s decision follows months of friction between the White House and State Department over how to handle the Iran nuclear agreement.'

'U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged on Tuesday that he and President Donald Trump disagree over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and said the two men discuss how to use the international agreement to advance administration policies,' Reuters wrote in an article on Wednesday

Reuters quoted Tillerson, 'He and I have differences of views on things like JCPOA, and how we should use it,' adding Trump has preserved the deal for now, although he has made clear he did so reluctantly after being advised to do so by Tillerson.

Tillerson acknowledged that the United States is limited in how much it can pressure Iran on its own and said it was important to coordinate with the other parties to the agreement; however, European officials would likely be reluctant to re-impose sanctions on Iran.

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