President Donald Trump told reporters that he fired Rex Tillerson because he wanted to kill the Iran nuclear deal and his Secretary of State did not.
America’s top diplomat was forced out on Tuesday morning after a tumultuous year on the job, and months of rumors that the former oilman’s ouster was imminent.
“We disagreed on things,” Trump said of Tillerson, hours after news broke of the termination.
“When you look at the Iran deal, I think its’ terrible, the President added. “I guess [Tillerson] felt it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently.”
Trump said of current CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who was tapped to replace Tillerson at the State Department: “We have a very similar thought process.”
On the Iran deal, in particular, Pompeo has spoken Trump’s language. Back in 2016, after taking the reins at CIA, Pompeo said he believed the pact was “disastrous” and expressed an interested in “rolling back” the agreement.
The Trump administration will have a chance to dismantle the Iran agreement within a few months. Every 120 days, the President must certify ongoing Iranian compliance with the deal to prevent new sanctions from penalizing Tehran. The next certification is due in May.
When he last certified the agreement in January, Trump warned: “Fix the deal’s disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw.” He added: “This is a last chance.”
Should Trump make good on his promise to kill the Iran deal, it could harm the US intelligence community’s insights into that country’s nuclear program.
During questioning before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats admitted that withdrawing from the agreement could “diminish” the visibility US spies currently have into Iranian nuclear capabilities.
Mike Pompeo still has to clear what’s likely to be a contentious confirmation hearing in the Senate before he can take the lead at the State Department.
Trump also nominated longtime CIA official Gina Haspell to lead the Agency after Pompeo.
Haspel played a critical role in the intelligence service’s post-9/11 torture program. She was also involved in the destruction of tapes showing evidence of war crimes stemming from the program.
Last year, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights requested that German prosecutors issue an arrest warrant for Haspel related to work with the CIA torturing detainees at a black site in Thailand.
