Obama Criticizes Trump’s Iran Policy, Says U.S. Is Worse Off Than Before

Former U.S. President Barack Obama questioned the recent U.S. operation in Iran, saying in an interview with NBC’s Today that America has returned to the status quo with Iran, only in a worse position. “We fought, spent billions and put enormous strain on the military. Many people died,” he said, after being asked about President Donald Trump’s new memorandum of understanding.

Obama said he welcomed the ceasefire and hoped it would hold, but argued that during his presidency Iran had agreed not to develop nuclear weapons. According to him, the Trump administration, or at least the previous version of it, pulled out of the nuclear deal, which led Iran to build greater nuclear capability. He added that he did not understand the logic of going to war in February.

Trump, who withdrew in his first term from the nuclear agreement Obama signed with Iran in 2015, has repeatedly attacked both Obama and the accord. At the end of the G7 summit, he said Obama’s deal would have led to nuclear weapons and claimed his own deal would block Iran from obtaining them. He also said Obama’s agreement would have destroyed Israel and the entire Middle East, unless he had stopped it.

In interviews this week promoting the opening of his presidential library in Chicago, Obama said the deal was the product of “almost unprecedented” global cooperation. He said it ran 150 pages, was carefully detailed, and had the support of all Western intelligence agencies, including the Mossad and the CIA. He said the agreement removed 97% of Iran’s uranium and avoided war, adding that there was no justified reason to abandon it.