Donald Trump scrapped Iran nuclear deal ‘to spite Obama’ new leak claims

Donald Trump is accused of abandoning the Iran nuclear deal to spite his predecessor Barack Obama in another memo written by the UK’s former ambassador to the US that has leaked today.

Sir Kim Darroch described the move as an act of ‘diplomatic vandalism’ in the memo leaked to the Mail on Sunday.

It says the memo was written after the then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson appealed to the US in 2018 to stick with the nuclear deal. Under that agreement Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities. However, President Trump did not think that the deal went far enough.

The newspaper reports that after Mr Johnson returned to the UK from the US, Sir Kim wrote that President Trump appeared to be abandoning the nuclear deal for ‘personality reasons’ because the pact had been agreed by Obama.

The latest leak comes after a tumultuous week in which Sir Kim resigned from his role and a police investigation was launched due to previous memos published in the press. The first private emails written by Sir Kim published a week ago criticised the president’s White House administration, calling it ‘clumsy and inept’.

Trump responded by calling Sir Kim ‘a very stupid guy’ with whom he would no longer deal.

In the latest leak, the British ambassador is said to have highlighted splits among US presidential advisors and said that the White House did not have a ‘day-to-day’ strategy of what to do following withdrawal from the Iran deal.

The paper reports that Sir Kim wrote a memo to Boris Johnson, saying: ‘The outcome illustrated the paradox of this White House: you got exceptional access, seeing everyone short of the president; but on the substance, the administration is set upon an act of diplomatic vandalism, seemingly for ideological and personality reasons – it was Obama’s deal.

'Moreover, they can’t articulate any ‘day-after’ strategy; and contacts with State Department this morning suggest no sort of plan for reaching out to partners and allies, whether in Europe or the region.’

Yesterday Scotland Yard issued a second statement after warning the media about publishing leaked diplomatic memos.

The warning prompted a backlash from newspaper editors and MPs, who defended the freedom of the press.