President Trump’s reckless decision to withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear agreement breaks trust with our allies and needlessly endangers US national security. This is a crisis of the president’s own making. Trump’s withdrawal will likely lead to the collapse of the agreement, unleashing Iran’s nuclear program and significantly increasing the risk of war in the Middle East.

"The Iran accord is the strongest anti-nuclear agreement in decades. It cut Iran’s nuclear complex down to a fraction of its current size and wrapped it in the most stringent inspection regime ever negotiated," said Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione. "The president is recklessly endangering US national security. If the deal collapses, and Iran resumes its nuclear program, the US will be forced to confront an unthinkable choice: an Iranian nuclear weapon or another disastrous war in the Middle East."

"Let’s be clear: President Trump has violated the Iran Deal, and he now owns the consequences. If the deal falls apart and Iran moves closer to producing nuclear weapons, we will know who to blame. If the Trump administration takes the nation to war to prevent an Iranian bomb, we will know who to blame," said Tom Collina, Ploughshares Fund Policy Director. "But we don’t have to go there. The president can and must immediately reverse course and bring the United States back into compliance to avert a new nuclear crisis and reduce the risk of war."

Many of our grantees, partners and friends are leading the charge in expert public response to President Trump's recent announcement. Their voices and ideas are powerful and encouraging. Ploughshares Fund grantees working on Iran and nuclear policy have been expertly crafting suggestions, messaging and planning. The network we helped build to support the Iran nuclear agreement is again proving its worth. Here are some examples of the compelling commentary groups and experts, many supported by donations from people like you, have produced today:

• Trump's Reckless Violation of the Iran Deal Jeopardizes US National Security [1], Kelsey Davenport, Time
• Trump just opened the door for Iran to expand its nuclear capabilities [2], Daryl Kimball, The Hill 
• Anatomy of a Lousy Decision [3], Jon Wolfsthal, The New Republic 
• Trump Vindicates Iranian Hardliners And Victimizes Ordinary Citizens [4], Trita Parsi and Ryan Costello, Huffington Post
• Trump Trashes Diplomacy, Opens Path To War With Iran [5], Bill Hartung, LobeLog
• Without Iran plan, Trump destroys US credibility, betrays allies [6], Joe Cirincione, MSNBC
• Trump blows up Iran nuclear deal with nothing to replace it [7], Barbara Slavin, Axios
• My Iranian Family Was Helpless While My Uncle Died. Thanks To Trump, It Could Happen Again [8], Donna Farvard, Bustle
• After Trump’s Iran decision: Time for Europe to step up [9], Ellie Geranmayeh, European Council on Foreign Relations
• Iran deal exit putting new strain on trans-Atlantic alliances, says expert [10], Barbara Slavin, CNBC
• Statement by Barack Obama [11], Facebook
• Statement by John Kerry [12], Twitter
• Post-Iran deal, the US needs a plan to keep nuclear weapons from spreading [13], Ariane Tabatabai and Martin Rioux-Lefebvre, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 
• Killing the nuke deal won't bring the regime change Iran hawks want [14], Farshad Farahat, The Hill
• Europe’s Counterpunch to America Over the Iran Deal [15], Barbara Slavin, American Conservative
• Regime change in Iran could cost the US trillions [16], William Hartung, CNN
• Iran is not North Korea: Trump's regional allies prefer civil war to peace [17], Trita Parsi, Middle East Eye
• Trump’s Iran Policy: From the Art of the Deal to the Mirage of Regime Change [18], Manochehr Dorraj, PhD and Mahmood Monshipouri, PhD, Atlantic Council

All of this is building towards a major fight to promote another diplomatic solution to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East while preventing the Trump administration from taking the nation to war to prevent an Iranian bomb.

We will stay fully engaged in this debate, working, with your support, to mitigate the effects of this self-imposed national security catastrophe. We will make timely new grants and continue to coordinate the resistance to this dangerous agenda.