Trump promises 'severe consequences' if Iran restarts nuclear programme

Donald Trump has added to the international tension triggered by his decision to abandon the Iran weapons deal, warning Tehran not to restart its nuclear programme and vowing there will be “very severe consequence” if it does so.

A day after the US president said he was withdrawing from what many experts believed to be among the most toughly-bargained diplomatic deals ever hammered out, Mr Trump created further anxiety.

“I would advise Iran not to start their nuclear programme," Mr Trump told reporters at the start of a cabinet meeting in Washington when asked about the possibility of Iran once again trying to develop a weapon. “I would advise them very strongly. If they do there will be very severe consequences.”

Mr Donald Trump is also preparing to impose new sanctions on Iran, perhaps as early as next week, the White House said on Wednesday.

"We are 100 per cent committed to making sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a news briefing.

"We're going to continue to put maximum pressure, enormous sanctions on them. All of the sanctions that were in place before the deal are back in place and we are preparing to add additional sanctions that may come as early as next week," Ms Sanders said.

His comments came as officials in Iran and leaders across Europe scrambled to see if they could continue to operate the 2015 deal negotiated by Barack Obama. European countries have been presented with the dilemma of either continuing to deal with Iran and facing Washington’s sanctions, or giving up the relationships they have developed in the country since 2015.

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, claimed that the deal, initially involving seven parties, could yet continue. “The deal is not dead. There’s an American withdrawal from the deal but the deal is still there,” he said, according to the Associated Press.

But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who helped engineer the deal to ease his country’s economically crippling isolation, told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a phone call that Europe had only a “limited opportunity” to preserve the pact, the Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.

“[Europe] must, as quickly as possible, clarify its position and specify and announce its intentions with regard to its obligations,” he reportedly said.

France, Germany and Britain were among those countries urging Mr Trump to stick with the deal, which also involves China and Russia, and give them a chance to try and repair any shortcomings, rather than pull out.

Mr Trump, who repeatedly condemned the deal during the 2016 presidential campaign, believed it was “defective at its core”.

On Wednesday he said the deal “was going to lead to nuclear proliferation all over the Middle East” and boasted that the sanctions the US was imposing would be among the strongest “that we’ve ever put on a country”.

Mr Trump also pointed to Iran’s actions in countries including Syria and Yemen.

“With all of the places they’re involved, it’s bedlam and death and we can’t allow that to happen,” he said. “They’ve got to understand life. Cause I don’t think they do understand life.”

Reuters said the sanctions that the US decided to reimpose will limit its ability to sell oil or do business overseas, affecting a wide range of Iranian economic sectors and individuals. Iran has repeatedly denied trying to develop a weapon.

Major companies in the US and Europe could be hurt as a result of Mr Trump’s decision. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that licenses held by Boeing and its European competitor, Airbus, to sell billions of dollars in commercial jetliners to Iran will be revoked.

Certain exemptions are to be negotiated, but Mr Mnuchin refused to discuss what products might qualify.

He said the sanctions will sharply curtail sales of oil by Iran, which is currently the world’s fifth largest oil producer. Mr Mnuchin said he did not expect oil prices to rise sharply, forecasting that other producers will step up production.

Some observers believe that while Mr Trump may be motivated considerably by his desire to stick to a promise he made to his supporters, he may also genuinely believe the US can help broker a new deal.

Most experts believe that will be even harder than negotiating the 2015 deal.

Yet Mr Trump also left open the possibility of a new deal. He said: “We’ll make either a really good deal for the world or we’re not going to make a deal at all.”