From Iran to Syria, Trump's "America First" approach faces its first tests

In “America First” terms, Mr. Trump’s decision about what to do with the Iran deal will be an early test of his willingness to act unilaterally. The nations that joined the United States in the negotiations — Britain, France, Russia and China — not only support the deal, but are rushing to take economic advantage of it by building commercial ties with Iran. If Mr. Trump wanted to abandon the deal or reimpose sanctions, they would almost certainly refuse to go along.

The Iranians hold a few cards, too. In January they shipped 98 percent of their nuclear fuel out of the country, disabled a plutonium reactor and took thousands of centrifuges, which enrich uranium, out of service. If the deal were to be declared dead, they would be free to re-create their nuclear infrastructure and rebuild their stockpile, now frozen until 2030. By Obama administration estimates, it would take about a year for them to produce enough new material for a weapon — longer to produce the weapon itself.

One option for Mr. Trump, advocated by many Republicans, is to simply reimpose sanctions on Iran for non-nuclear reasons, including its activities in Syria and its continued support of terrorism. The Iranians would say that violates the spirit of the agreement — and Iran’s leadership has already threatened that such action would nullify it.