Donald Trump took the stage on Wednesday, and once again gave his critiques of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal while mentioning former President Barack Obama during a joint press briefing at the G7 summit in France.
Alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the summit in Evian, Trump claimed that the Obama administration “tried to bribe” Iran through the nuclear accord, alleging that hefty cash transfers were part of the game.
He’s been vocal about the 2015 deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), calling it a bad deal that shortchanged the United States.
“Nobody could have made this deal. I mean the JCPOA done by Obama. He handed him a billion seven in cash… 1.7 billion dollars in cash, green cash from banks into a Boeing 757 and flew it into Iran,” Trump stated, pointing out that Iran responded with mockery.
“The Iranians laughed at Obama and they said, ‘He is a stupid son of a b****,’” Trump added.
The JCPOA, inked between Iran and the P5+1 countries in 2015, aimed to put the brakes on Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for some relief on sanctions.
But in 2018, the US pulled out of the agreement during Trump’s first term, arguing that it didn’t tackle Iran’s ballistic missile program or its regional maneuvers. Following the reinstatement of sanctions, Iran dialed back its compliance and ramped up uranium enrichment.