BREAKING: President Trump announces withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal

President Donald Trump is following through on his campaign threat and withdrawing the U.S. from the landmark nuclear accord with Iran.

Trump made the announcement Tuesday afternoon. “The United States no longer makes empty threats”, said the President. “Powerful sanctions will go into effect”.

Trump stated at the heart of the deal is a “giant fiction”. “It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace, and it never will.”

He went on to state the current deal lacks provisions to detect and punish cheating, and doesn’t have the right to inspect locations including military facilities. He said it also fails to address the regime’s development of nuclear missiles.

Trump stated we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the “rotten structure of the agreement. It’s defective at its core.”

He said the United States will be instating nuclear sanctions, and it would be at the “highest level of economic sanctions.”

“We will not allow American citizens to be threatened with destruction.”

It wasn’t immediately clear which sanctions lifted under the deal that Trump plans to immediately re-impose. The president says he made the decision after consulting with U.S. allies.

The president has long criticized the 2015 agreement, which lifted most U.S. and international sanctions against the country. In return, Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear program making it impossible to produce a bomb, along with rigorous inspections.

The decision deals a profound blow to some of America’s closest allies – including Britain, France and Germany, who joined the U.S. only three years ago to sign the deal.