McMaster Rushes to Save the Iran Deal Trump Promised to Kill

The president’s top national security aide is huddling with top senators to rescue the nuclear accord that Trump swore to scuttle.

By Betsy Woodruff and Spencer Ackerman 

Donald Trump’s national security adviser has been working closely with two key senators to prevent Trump from destroying the Iran deal, multiple sources in and outside government tell The Daily Beast.

By Friday, Trump will face a pivotal congressional deadline: whether to again waive nuclear-related sanctions on Iran; or permit their restoration, which would put the U.S. in violation of a multinational deal it spearheaded during Barack Obama’s administration.

According to multiple sources, H.R. McMaster is reprising the role he played last fall: removing a legislative irritant from Trump so that the president can quietly remain in the deal.

This time around, sources told The Daily Beast, McMaster is searching for an agreement, even one just in principle, with the leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to convince Trump that the president’s decision to “de-certify” Iran’s compliance last fall pressured Congress to modify its terms.

It doesn’t exactly work like that—Congress is not a party to the Iran deal, and so all it can do here is place restrictions, or encouragements, on U.S. policy toward Iran. But multiple sources said McMaster considers that an agreement with Sens. Bob Corker and Ben Cardin that took away the congressional deadlines on Iran that Trump hates would be a face-saving way for the White House to accept the deal.

“This would be a coup for McMaster and a bailout for Trump,” said a Republican lobbyist familiar with the talks.

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Source: The Daily Beast