US Defense. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis
Naional Review, October 3, 2017 - Supporters of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (the JCPOA) have been very active on social media this afternoon claiming that Secretary of Defense James Mattis broke with President Trump when he told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that the United States should remain in the Iran deal.
JCPOA supporters are worried that President Trump will not certify to Congress by an October 15 deadline that the JCPOA is in America’s national security interests and that Iran is in compliance. But after the president called the agreement “an embarrassment to the United States” in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly last month, JCPOA advocates are even more worried that he will withdraw the U.S. from the agreement, possibly using a plan drafted by Ambassador John Bolton, which National Review published on August 28.
Prodded by JCPOA supporters, the media is playing up Mattis’s statement today as showing that the Secretary has suddenly turned on the president.
This is not the case. In fact, General Mattis made clear during his Senate confirmation hearing on January 12, 2017, that he supported America’s remaining in the Iran nuclear deal. Mattis also sided with other cabinet members in April 2017 and July 2017 in recommending that Trump certify the nuclear deal to Congress. Media stories that Mattis suddenly decided to oppose the president on the JCPOA are fake news.
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