Donald Trump tweeted today that he plans to announce whether or not the U.S. will continue its part in the Iran nuclear deal.
Trump will decide tomorrow whether or not to renew a 120-day waiver on sanctions for Iran.
News analyst Charlie Sennott joined Boston Public Radio to talk about what steps have been taken over the last few weeks to sway the president to preserve the waiver and protect the Iran nuclear deal.
“The diplomacy that’s going on is extraordinary,” he said. “The message has been, this is really important to stick with this.”
Republicans like Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas have tried to convince the president not to pull out of the deal entirely.
John Kerry has also allegedly been holding meetings and calling key players to preserve the agreement, which was one of his major diplomatic achievements.
Sennott said there’s bipartisan support for the deal.
“This deal is an extraordinary diplomatic effort, initiative and by all arguments, success,” he said. “Even [Secretary of Defense] Jim Mattis said this is really being done pretty well.”
Sennott explained that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is one party that actually opposes the deal. He said Netanyahu is largely motivated by political concerns.
“His government is in trouble. He’s facing some pretty serious corruption charges. He’s got to hold on to power... fear speaks very loudly,” Sennott said. “To keep people in fear and to think there's a real problem here is something that Netanyahu has made a political career out of over and over again.”
Charlie Sennott is a news analyst at WGBH, where he also heads up The GroundTruth project. To hear his interview in its entirety, click on the audio player above.
