Trump takes aim at Obama's Iran nuclear deal as he celebrates US strikes in Strait of Hormuz
Donald Trump has taken aim at Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran by sharing a meme mocking the former president’s policies as he celebrated recent US strikes.
Listen to this article
The US president took to social media just as his military launched 'self-defensive' strikes on Iranian missile sites and boats.
The attacks, which shattered a ceasefire brokered in April, came hours after Trump suggested a breakthrough was close in peace talks.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump shared an image celebrating his latest attack on the Middle East country.
The political cartoon appears to summarise his and Obama’s Iran policies, with the right hand side of the split image showing a US Navy boat with an American flag unleashing missiles on Iranian targets.
On the left hand side, an image titled 'Obama’s Iran policies' shows a pile of dollars with a sticker attached reading 'Pallets of Cash'.
Read more: US launches 'self-defensive' strikes on Iranian missile sites and boats
This appears to be a reference to the unfrozen assets the former president handed back to Iran under his 2015 nuclear deal.
Trump pulled the US out of that agreement in 2018 during his first presidential term, which saw Iran agree to withdraw parts of its nuclear programme in exchange for the US’ lifting of harsh economic sanctions.
This allowed Iran to recover hundreds of billions of dollars of assets that had been frozen.
Trump claimed it was “a bad deal that sets a dangerous precedent” as he tore up the agreement.
His dig at Obama comes as tensions have reignited following a stalemate in talks aimed at ending the war, which has dragged on for more than three months.
On Monday explosions were heard in various regions across the Strait of Hormuz, with one explosion heard in Bandar Abbas in souther Iran, state media reported.
The strikes came as Iran's top negotiator and its foreign minister were in Doha for talks with Qatar's prime minister on a potential deal with the U.S. to end the three-month-old war, an official briefed on the visit said on Monday, after Washington and Tehran played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in New Delhi earlier that the U.S. would give diplomacy every chance to succeed before considering whether to deal with Iran in "another way".
Speaking after the strikes, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday negotiating a deal with Iran could "take a few days," quashing hopes for an imminent end to the conflict.
Describing the strikes against targets including boats attempting to lay mines and missile launch sites, Rubio said the Strait of Hormuz has to be open "one way or the other."
"The straits have to be open, they're going to be open one way or the other, so they need to be open," Rubio told reporters on his plane in India.
Despite a ceasefire in place since early April, U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Monday it had carried out fresh strikes designed "to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces."