The decision of US President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal would isolate America, former vice president Joe Biden has said.
"Today's announcement that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal is a profound mistake. It will isolate the United States from nearly every major world power. It will weaken our credibility and global leadership. It will allow Iran to garner international sympathy while doing nothing to reduce its harmful activities across the Middle East," Biden said in a statement yesterday.
Upset at the decision, he said it would likely put Iran back on the path to a nuclear weapon with no clear diplomatic way out.
"This wholly unnecessary crisis could ultimately put the safety of our country and our fellow citizens, including thousands of men and women in uniform serving across the Middle East, at risk by setting us back on a path to war with Iran," Biden said.
Biden said the US should continue to work with its allies and partners to counter Iran's ability to subvert Israel and other partners in the region. The deal provided a long-term check on Iran's pathways to a nuclear bomb, buying the US critical time and space to address the regime's other destabilising activities, he added.
Asserting that the agreement has been working to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, Biden stated that even the International Atomic Energy Agency said so. "Our allies in Europe say so. Even the Trump administration has consistently certified Iran's compliance, a fact confirmed by Secretary of State Pompeo's testimony just last month," he said.
Observing that talk of a "better deal" was an illusion, Biden said it took years of sanctions pressure, painstaking diplomacy and the full support of the international community to achieve that goal.
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"We have none of that in place today," the former vice president said.
Biden said Trump's decision will do the opposite of what he said he intended. It would free up Iran's path to a nuclear weapon and ultimately force the US into a binary choice between engaging in a new military conflict or living with a nuclear-armed adversary, both of which pose grave national security risks, he added.
"And it puts us at odds with our closest European allies, who repeatedly urged the United States to honour the agreement," Biden said.
"President Trump has manufactured a crisis for his own political interests that puts us on a collision course not only with an adversary but also with our closest partners. It is just the latest example of how President Trump's notion of America First will leave America more alone and less secure," he said.
Democratic leaders were unanimous in their view that withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal is not in national interest of the US.
"Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon they are a threat to the region and to US national security interests. A withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Agreement, however, will do nothing to reduce that threat," Senator Time Smith said.
This move, he said, also sent a message that the US won't abide by or act faithfully when it came to diplomatic agreements, and it risked serious backlash from the international community.