Former US Aide: Trump's Anti-JCPOA Campaign Doomed

The US administration will never succeed in rallying its allies to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement because unlike US President Donald Trump, they recognize the ground realities, a former US presidential aide said.

"Our allies live in a world of facts, so they won't be convinced by anything Trump says to break from the Iran deal," Ben Rhodes, who served under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, said in a Twitter message.

Rhodes posted the link to a related article published by the Foreign Policy magazine on Friday.

As a candidate during the 2016 presidential election, Trump fiercely criticized the 2015 accord that Obama's team of diplomats and counterparts from the other five power states negotiated with Iran.

Despite his threat to either redo or undo the agreement, he reluctantly reaffirmed last Monday for the second time that the Islamic Republic has honored the curbs placed by the deal on its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

Under US law, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days of Iran's compliance.

That decision came at the end of a hectic day, involving a contentious meeting between Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Among the options Trump discussed with Tillerson was to extend the sanctions relief but refuse to certify Iran's compliance.

Foreign Policy said Trump instructed a group of trusted White House staffers last Tuesday to make the potential case for withholding certification of Iran at the next the 90-day review of the nuclear deal.

"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.

"This is the president telling the White House that he wants to be in a place to decertify 90 days from now and it's their job to put him there," the source added.

Other parties to the deal have opposed Trump's hawkish stance, touting the agreement as a major diplomatic achievement in the interest of world peace and stability.