President-elect Trump should remember the “success” of the nuclear agreement with Iran before making any decisions about its future, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday at his final daily briefing.
“We’ve gotten proof of concept: This has worked,” Earnest said, urging Trump to keep pressuring Iran to uphold its end of the agreement. “We’re hopeful and optimistic that he considers the success of the past year” when he charts a path forward for the Iran deal, Earnest added.
Critics note that Iran, according to the agreement, will be able to resume its nuclear program without restrictions in about a dozen years, arguing that Obama has merely left dealing with Iran’s nuclear program for another president.
Trump has repeatedly slammed the Iran nuclear deal as an example of Obama’s foreign policy failures.
But Earnest noted that pulling out of the agreement was not as simple as its critics have suggested.
“This is not just an agreement between the United States and Iran,” Earnest said.
“You’ll recall that this was one of the foremost foreign policy challenges facing President Obama when he took office,” he said of the Iranian nuclear threat.
