US on course for new Middle East policy

REBUFFING the advice of America's allies across the Atlantic and the Pacific, US President Donald Trump made this week the most significant foreign policy decision of his administration so far, announcing on Tuesday that he would pull America out of the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015.

The general expectation in Washington and other world capitals before Tuesday was that President Trump would be exiting the Iran deal that he criticised during the 2016 presidential campaign and after entering office as "insane" and "the worst".

But there was also some hope among government officials in France, Germany and Britain, who were co-signatories to the nuclear agreement, that he would also state on Tuesday that he would allow for a few more months of negotiations aimed at improving the agreement, before discarding it to the trash heap of history during his televised appearance in the diplomatic reception room of the White House.