VOA常速英语:U.S. Withdraws From Iran Deal

The United States is withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and has begun reinstating U.S. nuclear sanctions on the Iranian regime. In announcing his decision, President Donald Trump said, “At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction, that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program.”

The intelligence documents recently published by Israel and long–concealed by Iran, President Trump declared, “conclusively show[ed] the Iranian regime and its history of pursuing nuclear weapons.”

What the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, did, the President said, was to lift crippling economic sanctions on Iran “in exchange for very weak limits on the regime's nuclear activity and no limits at all on its other malign behavior.”

“In the years since the deal was reached, Iran's military budget has grown by almost 40 percent while its economy is doing very badly. After the sanctions were lifted, the dictatorship used its new funds to build nuclear-capable missiles, support terrorism and cause havoc throughout the Middle East and beyond."

The JCPOA was so structured, President Trump said, that “even if Iran fully complies, the regime can be on the verge of a nuclear break out in just a short period of time:”

“If we do nothing, we know exactly what will happen...The world's leading state-sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the world's most dangerous weapons.”

“Americans will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail,” President Trump said. “We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction:”

“As we exit the Iran deal, we will be working with our allies to find a real, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Iranian nuclear threat. This will include efforts to eliminate the threat of Iran's ballistic missile program, to stop its terrorist activities worldwide, and to block its menacing activity across the Middle East.”

President Trump also had a message for the “long-suffering” Iranian people: the people of America stand with them, and “they deserve a nation that does justice to their dreams, honor to their history and glory to God.”

President Trump declared he stands ready to make a new and lasting deal that “benefits all of Iran and the Iranian people...Great things can happen for Iran and...for the peace and stability that we all want in the Middle East.”