IT is no secret that the majority of America's military partners were opposed to the 2018 decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal.

Under the pact - reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany in 2015 - the Iranians agreed to freeze their nuclear military programme for 15 years in exchange for a gradual elimination of economic sanctions on their country. The deal - negotiated by the administration of former president Barack Obama - was not considered a perfect agreement. As its critics (including then presidential candidate Trump) pointed out, it required full cooperation on the part of Teheran and did not constrain Iran's ability to destabilise the Middle East by employing its regional proxies.

But according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2018, the organisation verified that Iran was implementing its nuclear-related commitments. And the hope was that removal of sanctions would allow Iran to integrate into the global economy, strengthen the hands of the moderates in Teheran and create the conditions for turning Iran into a responsible regional power. But pressed by the military hawks in America's Republican Party, as well as by Saudi Arabia and Israel who regard Teheran as a core threat to their security, President Trump rejected advice from London and Paris, Japan and Seoul, and decided to pull out of the JCPOA and embrace a tough stand requiring Teheran to state that it would never acquire nuclear military capability and end its aggressive policies in the Middle East as pre-conditions for negotiating a new nuclear deal with Washington.