U.S. officials say President Donald Trump is set to deliver a speech next week in which he will make known his decision on whether the United States will remain in the 2015 landmark deal between Iran and leading world powers on curbing Tehran's nuclear program.
The Associated Press reports the speech has been tentatively scheduled for October 12, just ahead of the October 15 deadline Trump faces to tell Congress if he believes Iran is complying with the eight-party pact and if it advances U.S. interests.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump will be offered multiple options regarding the deal. He, however, refused to disclose details about the options.
He also declined to directly answer a question about whether he shared Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' assessment to Congress that Iran was "fundamentally" in compliance with the accord.
"If we can confirm that Iran is living by the agreement, if we can determine that this is in our best interest, than clearly we should stay with it," Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday. "I believe at this point in time, absent indications to the contrary, it is something the president should consider staying with."
Trump has been a stern critic of what his predecessor, former president Barack Obama, saw as one of his signature foreign policy achievements.
Dubbing it a “bad deal,” Trump pledged during his campaign for the White House last year to rip up the agreement. And in New York, in a speech last month at the United Nations’ General Assembly, he described the deal as an “embarrassment,” saying it was “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”