Iran: Tillerson ouster shows Trump ‘determined’ to scrap nuclear deal

Iran’s deputy foreign minister argued Wednesday that President Trump’s decision to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson underscored the president’s desire to scrap the nuclear deal with Iran.

“The United States is determined to leave the nuclear deal, and changes at the State Department were made with that goal in mind — or at least it was one of the reasons,” Abbas Araghchi said, according to the Iranian news agency ISNA. 

Trump announced on Tuesday on Twitter that he would be replacing Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. 

Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018

The president later acknowledged to reporters that he disagreed with Tillerson on major issues, including the nuclear deal. 

{mosads}

“Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time,” Trump said at the White House. “I actually got along well with Rex, but really it was a different mindset, a different thinking.”

“When you look at the Iran deal, I think it’s terrible. I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently,” he said. 

While Trump repeatedly blasted the Obama-era nuclear deal between the U.S. and five world powers and Iran, Tillerson urged him to stay in the agreement. 

Trump ended up moving on Oct. 13 to decertify Iran’s compliance, but Tillerson voiced his support for the agreement in an interview two days later.