Trump Iran deal plan could open nuclear 'pandora's box'

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While Trump will likely stop short of scrapping the agreement entirely, he is expected to lay out an aggressive new whole-of-government strategy to counter Iran's regional aggression and its threats worldwide.

The plan is also expected to highlight how the United States can work with allies to counter Iranian behavior and also address certain flaws in the nuclear deal.

The world needs to look at Iran's actions beyond the terms of just nuclear compliance, a source with knowledge of the plan told CNN on Wednesday.

This approach could allow the US to stay in the deal but help Trump avoid the political headache of having to re-certify it every 90 days.

It might also help keep the Europeans on board with administration efforts to fight Iran's other destabilizing activities.

Congress will have 60 days to pass legislation reimposing sanctions on Iran, but the plan for Trump to declare that the agreement is no longer in the best interests of the United States has sparked warnings that the decision could backfire in a way that ultimately expedites Iran's development of a nuclear weapon.

"The nuclear deal wasn't meant to fix Iran's regional meddling, irritating as that may be. Its goal, rather, was to ensure that Iran doesn't acquire nuclear weapons, which would then set off a regional nuclear arms race in the Middle East where Saudi Arabia would quickly follow suit," CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen wrote in a recent op-ed.

Several lawmakers and members of the Trump administration agree that more needs to be done to counter threats that are not explicitly included in the Iran deal, but many have also indicated that those efforts should not come at the expense of creating a scenario in which the agreement is terminated.

Trump's Secretary of Defense James Mattis testified last week that it is in America's national security interest to remain in the agreement.

European diplomats, anticipating Trump's move, have already been meeting with Democrats and Republicans in Congress to take lawmakers' temperatures and lobby them on the merits of the agreement.

The message these diplomats have gotten from administration officials is that they were "looking for a middle way" and didn't want to "kill the deal," one envoy said. Amending the US law provided a way out, but the envoy said there is little appetite in Congress for the hot potato Trump had handed them.

Democrats back the deal and even the few who voted against it, like Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, have now said they will support it, the envoy said.

Conveying what Republicans are saying, the envoy said, "they want to avoid a crisis and they don't want to kill the agreement" and be saddled with the blame for that.

House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ed Royce said Wednesday that he believes it is in the United States' national security interest to "enforce the hell" out of the Iran nuclear deal -- imploring President Donald Trump to clearly explain the facts behind whatever decision he makes...

Read More: Trump Iran deal plan could open nuclear 'pandora's box'

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