Statement by International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War

IPPNW condemns the withdrawal of the United States from the international nuclear weapons agreement with Iran, announced today by Donald Trump.

The decision by the US President to ignore key advisers and allies and to pull out of the nuclear agreement with Iran immediately increases the chances of new and intensified conflict in the Middle East and could provoke Iran into resuming its nuclear weapons program.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has certified Iran’s compliance since 2015, when the agreement to halt all activities that could lead to development of nuclear weapons was reached with the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China, Germany, and the European Union.

“This dangerous and unwarranted decision repeats the mistake made during the George W. Bush administration,” said IPPNW co-president Ira Helfand. “Bush, at the urging of some of the same people who have now encouraged Trump to take this reckless action, pulled out of the previous US agreement with North Korea and put nothing in its place. We know what came of that, and we fear the same thing could easily happen again in Iran. We urge Iran to remain in the treaty along with European leaders and the rest of the world community.”

Coming on the eve of potential negotiations over the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, Trump’s decision to tear up another US nuclear weapons treaty will make it difficult to convince North Korea or any other government in the world that the US is serious about honoring its commitments with regard to nuclear weapons.

During the recent Preparatory Committee meetings in Geneva for the 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, the US, along with the other nuclear-weapon states, once again ignored their obligation under Article VI of that treaty to work toward total nuclear weapons disarmament.  US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement only intensifies pressures on an already fragile non-proliferation regime.

IPPNW, as the founding member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, urges all nations to sign and ratify the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted in the United Nations last year as part of a worldwide movement to lead the world back from the brink of nuclear war.