Schiff: Trump made mistake of ‘historic proportions’ by scrapping Iran deal

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.) on Tuesday blasted President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal, calling it a mistake of “historic proportions.”

“Scuttling an agreement that had halted the Iranian nuclear program and put in place an intrusive regimen of inspections without a credible Plan B is a mistake of historic proportions,” Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

Trump officially announced Tuesday that the U.S. will not renew sanctions waivers for Iran under the 2015 deal, saying the agreement failed to address the country’s ballistic missile program and did not give U.S. allies enough access to certain nuclear facilities.

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The president had long criticized the Obama-era accord, which offered sanctions relief to Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program. He announced his decision to withdraw despite the urging of European allies such as France and the United Kingdom to stay in the agreement.

Schiff, a vocal Trump critic who previously endorsed the multination Iran agreement, said that while the deal may not have gone far enough, “its virtues always outweighed its shortcomings” by making Iran dispose of key nuclear materials and processing materials.

The Democratic lawmaker argued that Trump’s decision to pull out has “weakened our credibility on the world stage in a way that will be difficult to repair.”