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 May 8, 2018, 5:33 PM GMT / Updated May 8, 2018, 8:32 PM GMT By Jonathan Allen, Alex Moe and Frank Thorp V 
 
 WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he is withdrawing the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, reneging on a landmark pact and raising fears that Tehran might respond by resuming its frozen weapons program. 
 
 "It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement," Trump said in a nationally televised statement from the White House. "The United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal." 
 
 Trump further said that he would impose the "highest level" of sanctions, which would affect not only Iran but other countries that do business with it. The Treasury Department said a series of primary and secondary sanctions — those affecting American and foreign partners of Iran — would go back into effect after wind-down periods specified by law. 
 
 In 2015, Iran agreed to halt its pursuit of nuclear weapons — and to allow for international checks on its facilities — in exchange for moves by the U.S., several other countries and the United Nations to roll back sanctions that had crippled its economy. The accord was widely seen as the biggest foreign policy accomplishment of President Barack Obama's administration. 
 
 But Trump has long been a critic of the agreement — calling it the "worst deal ever" — maintaining that Obama gave up too much for too little. His decision signals a dramatic reversal of U.S. policy, and his rhetoric was hawkish. 
 
 The move also raises two important questions for the Trump administration and the international community: Whether Iran will respond by resuming its quest for nuclear weapons — and whether reneging on the Iran pact might affect North Korea's willingness to cut a denuclearization deal of its own with the president. 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in the air on his way to North Korea during the announcement, Trump said. Critics of Tuesday's move said Trump is giving North Korea little reason to trust him. 
 
 "In a democracy, there will always be changes in policies and priorities from one Administration to the next," Obama said in a statement Tuesday calling Trump's actions "misguided" and harmful to America's standing in the world. "But the consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America's credibility, and puts us at odds with the world's major powers." 
 
 Meanwhile, French President Emanuel Macron, who spoke with Trump Tuesday morning before the announcement, tweeted his "regret" over the president's decision. "The nuclear non-proliferation regime is at stake," he wrote. 
 
 The withdrawal of the U.S. leaves a big hole at the negotiating table after Trump had sought over the past six months to force a new deal by threatening to scrap the existing one. 
 
 Still, some in the administration and outside it were hopeful that his declaration would create pressure on Iran and America's partners in that deal — Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — to negotiate a new agreement in which Iran abandons its ballistic missile development, funding of terrorist groups, stated quest to destroy Israel and cyber-attacks on the U.S. and its allies. 
 
 That group included some American critics of Trump's move, including members of his own party, who expressed hope that the U.S. would be a part of a renegotiated agreement in the coming months. 
 
 "Without proof that Iran is in violation of the agreement, it is a mistake to fully withdraw from this deal," said Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee. "Now, we need to work with our allies to fix this flawed agreement to ensure the world is not facing a nuclear Iran.” 
 
 For his part, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that his country would remain engaged with the other signatories to the original deal. 
 
 "We've known for months that President Trump wouldn't be committed to this deal," he said. "The Iranian foreign ministry will continue talks with remaining countries in the deal." 
 
 It is difficult to say exactly how Trump’s maneuver is likely to play out over time. The U.S. sanctions are complex, and only part of the international picture. Moreover, the reactions of each country involved in the original deal are difficult to predict precisely — including that of Iran itself: Even if Tehran doesn’t kick-start its nuclear weapons program, its leaders could banish inspectors. 
 
 In the meantime, foreign countries and companies will be risking their ability to do business in the U.S. if they continue to buy Iranian oil. 
 
 Iran initially came to the negotiating table because of the pain caused by economic sanctions imposed by Congress, a series of U.S. presidents, several foreign nations and the United Nations. 
 
 Proponents of the deal say that it has worked — that Iran has kept its promises to halt the nuclear weapons program and to allow international vetting of its energy capabilities. 
 
 But Trump campaigned on rewriting the pact, and in a speech to the U.N. last year, called it a major "embarrassment" and "one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into." 
 
 Until Tuesday, though, he had taken a more measured approach to the deal. Last October, in declining to certify that Iran had lived up to its end of the bargain, Trump kicked a decision on whether to re-impose U.S. sanctions to Congress — which did not act. 
 
 Trump pushed the call to Congress, even though he always has had the power to re-impose sanctions through executive action and perhaps because he knew it was unlikely Congress would be capable of agreeing to anything. 
 
 Back then, his national security adviser was H.R. McMaster, who was considered a moderate on Iran. Now, though — with leading Iran critic John Bolton newly installed in McMaster's old role — Trump has decided to take on Tehran, a decision that has worried America's European allies. 
 
 Trump's announcement did draw a positive response from some, including many congressional Republicans and the Saudi government — whose U.S. ambassador tweeted that it "fully supports the measures" — and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who gave a much-publicized presentation late last month in which he accused Iran of violating the deal because it hadn't shared pre-existing plans for nuclear weapons with the international community. 
 
 In his remarks Tuesday, Trump pointed to thousands of documents detailing the program that Israeli intelligence operatives had spirited from Iran. In a televised address following Trump's speech, Netanyahu praised the president for his "courageous leadership." ||||| The international nuclear agreement with Iran is a "closed issue" and cannot be extended or changed in any way, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared Wednesday, flatly rejecting President Trump's criticism that the deal is weak and "an embarrassment." 
 
 "This is a building the frame of which, if you take out a single brick, the entire building will collapse," Rouhani said. 
 
 "This issue must be understood by the American officials," he added. "Either the JCPOA will remain as it is in its entirety or it will cease to exist." 
 
 The 2015 deal known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was a signature achievement for President Barack Obama. The agreement, negotiated over more than two years of difficult diplomacy, also involves European allies, as well as Russia and China, and is backed by the United Nations. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held his first meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif later Wednesday, alongside the other parties to the accord. 
 
 France, Germany and Britain have not signed on to the criticism lodged by the new U.S. administration, and French President Emmanuel Macron used his meeting here with Trump on Monday to urge the U.S. leader to stick with it. The agreement meant an infusion of cash and investment in Iran, much of it from European businesses liberated from international economic sanctions on Iran. 
 
 It has been an open question whether the agreement could survive without the United States, whose participation was the key to Iranian willingness to strike a bargain, limiting what it asserts is a peaceful nuclear program. 
 
 Rouhani's remarks are a declaration that the deal cannot be renegotiated to address U.S. concerns and cannot be reconstituted without the United States. 
 
 Rouhani also suggested that if the United States abrogates the terms of the deal, Iran could resume larger-scale uranium-enrichment activities — a move likely to rekindle international fears that Tehran would be able to accelerate the development of nuclear weapons. 
 
 "If anyone exits the agreement and breaks their commitment, it means our hand is completely open to take any action that we see as beneficial to our country," Rouhani said at a news conference after his address to the U.N. General Assembly. 
 
 "The JCPOA has no other conditions," Rouhani said. "It is the JCPOA in its current form." 
 
 Tillerson later told reporters he was not discouraged by Rouhani's refusal to consider any kind of modification of the deal. 
 
 "As a longtime negotiator, I learned to never say never," he said. "And second, it always gets the darkest before you might have a breakthrough. As I've said to people many times, as the nation's chief diplomat, I better be the most optimistic person standing in the room." 
 
 Tillerson said the meeting between diplomats whose countries signed the nuclear deal was civil and matter of fact, even though he and Zarif clearly differed in their assessment of the agreement. 
 
 "There was no yelling," he said. "We did not throw shoes at each other." 
 
 Trump said Wednesday that he has decided what to do about the Iran deal, which he has strongly and repeatedly criticized, but he did not say what that decision was. 
 
 Speaking in New York after a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Trump responded to a reporter's question about whether a decision has been made about the future of the accord. 
 
 "I have decided," Trump said, three times. 
 
 Pressed by reporters to reveal his decision, Trump smiled and said, "I'll let you know what the decision is." 
 
 Under U.S. law, Trump must decide by Oct. 15 whether to recertify Iran's compliance with the agreement. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has inspectors in Iran to monitor its nuclear facilities, has said eight times that it is complying. If Trump does not recertify it, Congress will have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose U.S. sanctions that were lifted when the deal took effect. That would in effect be a withdrawal. 
 
 Trump, in his speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday, called the agreement with Iran an embarrassment and "one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into." 
 
 In that fiery speech, he also said that Iran is a "murderous regime" that he put in the same category with rogue nations such as North Korea. 
 
 That led Rouhani to demand an apology Wednesday. 
 
 "Mr. Trump was offensive to Iran, and we are waiting for Mr. Trump to apologize to the people of Iran," Rouhani said through an interpreter. 
 
 Rouhani, during a 23-minute address at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, never mentioned Trump by name. Instead he referred to him obliquely, saying it would be a pity if the nuclear deal were undone by "rogue newcomers to the world of politics" and condemning "ignorant, absurd and hateful" remarks. 
 
 Rouhani denied that Iran had ever sought to obtain nuclear weapons and said the ballistic missiles it has been testing would be used only for defensive purposes. 
 
 Trump and other U.S. officials have criticized the nuclear deal for failing to address Iranian ballistic-missile programs and Iran's alleged support for terrorism. The criticism echoes long-standing conservative doubts about the value of the deal if it addressed only the potential threat of nuclear weapons. The Trump administration and Israel have also complained that even the nuclear protections are weak, since some of them expire in 10 to 15 years. 
 
 In his speech, Rouhani took umbrage at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's criticism of Iran the day before, when he called Iran the greatest threat to world peace. 
 
 "It is reprehensible that the rogue Zionist regime that threatens regional and global security with its nuclear arsenal and is not committed to any international instrument or safeguard has the audacity to preach [to] peaceful nations," he said. 
 
 Rouhani said that the time frame and deadlines contained in the deal were all carefully worked out and will not be revisited. 
 
 He also said the end of the nuclear deal would be more detrimental to the United States than to Iran. 
 
 "By violating its international commitments, the new U.S. administration only destroys its own credibility and undermines international confidence in negotiating with it, or accepting its word or promise," he said. 
 
 This is the third General Assembly since the deal was made, and Rouhani's appearances have reflected the arc of Iranian sentiment about it. 
 
 In 2015, as Iran was dismantling and downsizing parts of its nuclear program in the first part of the deal, Rouhani was optimistic it would lead to growth as Iran was reintegrated into the world economy. Last year, the Iranian president was dour, complaining that the United States had not done enough to convince international business and banks that it was safe to invest in Iran. This year, he was defiant. 
 
 And Tillerson was philosophical as he bemoaned the fact that the U.S.-Iranian relationship has been rocky for four decades now, since the 1979 revolution and the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. 
 
 "It's a relationship that's never had a stable, happy moment in it," he said. "And I think if we ever get the chance to talk, perhaps that's where we ought to start talking. Is this going to be the way it is for the rest of our lives and our children's lives and our grandchildren's lives? We've never had that conversation." 
 
 Read more: 
 
 The burning world crises that won’t get solved this week at the U.N. 
 
 In Trump’s U.N. speech, an emphasis on sovereignty echoes his domestic agenda 
 
 Abby Phillip in Washington contributed to this report.
– In a move he's been signalling for some time, President Trump on Tuesday withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, reports NBC News. “This is a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never ever been made," said the president in a televised news conference. "It didn't bring calm, it didn't bring peace, and it never will.” Trump, who accused Tehran of lying about its nuclear ambitions, also said the US would be reimposing the highest level of sanctions and warned other nations not to assist Iran, reports the AP. After his news conference, he signed a presidential memorandum to make the move official. The decision puts the US at odds with its European allies, which urged Trump to stick with the deal, and raises the possibility of tension with Russia and China, notes the New York Times. “We cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement,” Trump said in his remarks, adding that the agreement was "defective at its core" and an "embarrassment to me as a citizen and all citizens of the United States.” Doing away with what was considered President Obama's signature foreign policy achievement fulfills an oft-stated campaign pledge of Trump's, notes the Washington Post. Trump cited documents revealed last week by Israel suggesting that Iran had a nuclear weapons program in the 1990s, something it has repeatedly denied, and lied about that fact during negotiations for the 2015 accord. "At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction," Trump asserted.