US President Donald Trump has announced he will decertify an international deal on Iran’s nuclear program as he addresses flaws of a real threat of a “nuclear breakout”.

Speaking at the White House on Friday (US time), Mr Trump said that under American law the agreement was not in the best interests of the United States.

“We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump’s latest announcement does not amount to a withdrawal from the deal but instead seeks to look to toughen the US laws to make it easier to impose sanctions if Iran takes steps to resume its nuclear program.

“The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into,” Mr Trump said.

He complained that the international community is allowed only “weak inspections” under the 2015 agreement, which was negotiated by the US government under his predecessor, Barack Obama, with five other world powers and Iran.

“What is the purpose of a deal that at best only delays Iran’s nuclear capability for only a short time?” Mr Trump said.

While has hasn’t pulled out of the deal, aimed at preventing Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, Mr Trump gave the US Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions.

He said that if “we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated”.

Today, I announced our strategy to confront the Iranian regime’s hostile actions and to ensure that they never acquire a nuclear weapon. pic.twitter.com/N4ISdjuEdC

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2017

Mr Trump went further to describe Iran as a “rogue regime” that has spread “death and chaos” around the world.

He accused Iran of being the world’s “leading state sponsor of terrorism” and recited a long list of incidents, starting with the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran and numerous “proxy” attacks on US and other targets across the Middle East.

“The Iranian dictatorship’s aggression continues to this day,” Mr Trump said, and called the Iranian people the regime’s “longest-suffering victims”.

Iran committed to deal

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran was committed to the deal as long as it serves the country’s national interests and said Mr Trump was making unfounded accusations.

“The Iranian nation has not and will never bow to any foreign pressure,” he said in a live television address.

“Iran and the deal are stronger than ever.”

Mr Rouhani said the decision to decertify would isolate the US as other signatories remained committed to it, and said the deal was “not renegotiable”.

Allies quick to react

The US’s European allies, and China and Russia, who are signatories to the accord, were quick to respond after Mr Trump’s speech.

Russia’s foreign ministry said there was no place in international diplomacy for threatening and aggressive rhetoric, and said such methods were doomed to fail, in a statement issued after Mr Trump’s speech.

Speaking in Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the agreement did not belong to any single country.

“We cannot afford as the international community – as Europe for sure – to dismantle a nuclear agreement that is working and delivering,” Ms Mogherini said.

“It is not a bilateral agreement, it does not belong to any single country,” she said. “The president of the US has many powers: not this one.”

“It is not up to any single country to terminate it,” she said.

The head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran was complying with the accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, under the world’s “most robust nuclear verification regime”.

“The nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran under the JCPOA are being implemented,” Yukiya Amano, director general of the IAEA said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Mr Trump for his “bold” move.

“I congratulate President Trump for his courageous decision today, he boldly confronted Iran’s terrorist regime,” he said in a video statement.

“President Trump has just created an opportunity to fix this bad deal, to roll back Iran’s aggression and to confront its criminal support of terrorism,” he said.

— with agencies