2015 nuclear deal should have targeted Iran's policies

US President Donald Trump is not often right, but on his decision to walk away from the nuclear deal with Iran, he could have been very right.

The flaw in the 2015 deal with Iran stems from the fact that its scope is confined to stopping, or better still, postponing Iran's uranium enrichment programme, which can be used to manufacture a nuclear bomb but only for a limited number of years.

The limited scope of the accord left Tehran free to pursue its regional policies that could be viewed as unduly aggressive and at the expense of the geopolitical interest of other regional countries, including a number of Arab states.

Under the deal, Iran was also left free to develop long-range missiles that can threaten other countries in the Middle East, including several Arab countries.

True, such missiles would not carry nuclear bombs for the time being, but they certainly can carry a variety of other weapons that could be also lethal and devastating to many countries in the neighbourhood of Iran.

Has the objective of the deal been wider and more comprehensive, it could have been saved from the objections of other regional countries. The other Western members of the agreement seem to have wanted to save the deal not so much because of its inherent redeeming features, but rather to continue their voluminous trade with Iran.

The nations that were hyper critical for the US on its decision to break away from the 2015 deal had their economic interests at heart rather than the virtues of the deal.

Sooner or later, Iran will possess the nuclear bomb with or without the 2015 deal. This is unstoppable pure and simple. There is no real way to stopping Iran from acquiring its own nukes just like other neighbouring countries. When Israel, India and Pakistan are already in possession of nuclear bombs, what is to prevent Iran from doing the same, irrespective of any temporary stopgap to postpone the inevitable.

The scope of the 2015 deal should have been directed to Iran's policies and not its nuclear programme. Targeting just Iran's uranium enrichment programme would be missing the point.