An Explosive US Withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Agreement

On Tuesday 8^th of May, Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear agreement*, signed in 2015 by his predecessor Obama. Although predictable, the announcement created a shock wave in the international community which reacted immediately: Israel and Saudi Arabia, fierce opponents of Iran, applauded the decision of the White House, while the European allies were particularly worried and denounced the gravity of the withdrawal. Iranian President Hassan Rohani, however, said he wanted to preserve the agreement, as did the other signatories.

But since May 9, the tensions have risen sharply: the strikes carried out by Israel in response for the Iranian rocket attacks, launched from Syrian territory, targeting forward positions of the Israeli military constitute a very worrying step in this already explosive region.

* This agreement, signed in Vienna in July 2015 (by China, France, Germany, the European Union, Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States), aimed at preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon in return for the lifting of sanctions.

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