WarSclerotic

Donald Trump’s election as president raises the prospect the United States will pull out of the nuclear pact it signed last year with Iran, Western media hedged Wednesday.

Outgoing President Barack Obama’s administration touted the deal as a major foreign policy achievement, saying it was the best way to suspend Tehran’s drive to develop atomic weapons, but the agreement was harshly opposed by Republicans in Congress.

During his campaign, Trump repeatedly blasted the deal, calling the nuclear agreement a “disaster” and “the worst deal ever negotiated,” warning it could lead to a “nuclear holocaust,” and pledging that if elected, his top priority would be to “dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran.”

By contrast, Trump conceded it would be hard to revise a deal cemented by a United Nations Security Council resolution.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday there was “no possibility” for Trump to renege on the nuclear deal.

“Iran’s understanding in the nuclear deal was that the accord was not concluded with one country or government but was approved by a resolution of the UN Security Council and there is no possibility that it can be changed by a single government,” Iranian media quoted Rouhani as saying.

“The United States no longer has the capacity to create Iranophobia and to create a consensus against Iran,” he said. “The constructive engagement policies of Iran toward the world, and the fact that international sanctions have been lifted, have placed the Iranian economy on a road where there is no possibility of going backward.”

French news agency AFP quoted Iranian Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi as saying Iran “is prepared for any change.”

Meanwhile, the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, released Wednesday, confirmed Iran was sticking to its commitments.

The Islamic republic “has not enriched uranium above low purities; its uranium stockpile stayed below agreed levels; and it has not pursued the construction of its heavy water reactor at Arak,” the report said.