ABSTRACT
The United States and Israel have asserted since 1995 that Iran was on the cusp of building a nuclear weapon. The United States claimed that the sanctions excluded food and medicine, and were only aimed at the Iranian leadership. The United States worked with the Israeli government to develop a computer virus, later known as the Stuxnet worm, to disable Iranian nuclear facilities. The United States dropped demands that Iran explain documents that allegedly showed Iran had done nuclear bomb and related research. President Donald Trump made the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) a key campaign issue in 2016. He viscerally hated all of Barack Obama's policies and claimed that the nuclear accord was "catastrophic for America, for Israel and for the whole of the Middle East". The JCPOA imposed stringent restrictions on Iran's nuclear power program in return for lifting international sanctions.
