State Department nuclear expert quits
A top nuclear expert has resigned from the US State Department after Donald Trump announced the US would pull out from the Iran nuclear deal.
Richard Johnson, the assistant coordinator for Iran nuclear issues at the Office of Nuclear Implementation, reportedly handed in his resignation this week.
A civil servant, Mr Johnson had been involved in failed negotiations including the UK, France and Germany to save the deals after Mr Trump threatened to pull out.
Mr Johnson did not give an exact reason for his resignation but in an email circulated to colleagues and staff and obtained by Foreign Policy, he said the 2015 agreement with Iran had proved to be successful.
He wrote: “I am proud to have played a small part in this work, particularly the extraordinary achievement of implementing the [deal] with Iran, which has clearly been successful in preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon."
Writing on Twitter, Laura Kennedy, a former ambassador, said: “Richard Johnson is among the best and the brightest. His departure from the [US government] is part of the huge, worldwide collateral damage that is being wrought by Trump’s violation of the Iran deal. Feels like 2003 all over again."
Richard Johnson, the assistant coordinator for Iran nuclear issues at the Office of Nuclear Implementation, reportedly handed in his resignation this week.
A civil servant, Mr Johnson had been involved in failed negotiations including the UK, France and Germany to save the deals after Mr Trump threatened to pull out.
Mr Johnson did not give an exact reason for his resignation but in an email circulated to colleagues and staff and obtained by Foreign Policy, he said the 2015 agreement with Iran had proved to be successful.
He wrote: “I am proud to have played a small part in this work, particularly the extraordinary achievement of implementing the [deal] with Iran, which has clearly been successful in preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon."
Writing on Twitter, Laura Kennedy, a former ambassador, said: “Richard Johnson is among the best and the brightest. His departure from the [US government] is part of the huge, worldwide collateral damage that is being wrought by Trump’s violation of the Iran deal. Feels like 2003 all over again."
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