UK envoy said Donald Trump ditched Iran deal to spite Barack Obama: report

Britain's ambassor to Washington believed US President Donald Trump pulled out of Iran nuclear deal because it was associated with his predecessor Barack Obama, according to leaked documents published on July 13.

" ministration is set upon an act of diplomatic vandalism, seemingly for ideological and personality reasons -- it was Obama's deal," ambassor Kim Darroch wrote in a diplomatic cable in May 2018.

cable was included in a second batch of leaked reports published by Mail on Sunday newspaper, first of which caused Darroch to resign earlier this week.

Separately, Sunday Times reported that a government investigation into leak h identified a civil servant as person responsible.

Working with officials from National Cyber Security Centre, part of spy ncy GCHQ, and MI6, probe has homed in on a suspect who h access to historical Foreign Office files, paper said.

first leaked reports authored by Darroch were published last weekend, causing major turmoil between Britain and its closest ally.

ambassor was reported to have described White House as "inept", prompting Trump to claim ambassor was a "pompous fool" whom he would longer deal with.

Darroch resigned on July 10, saying it was w "impossible" to do his job.

In May 2018, Britain's n-foreign minister Boris Johnson went to Washington to try to persue Trump t to abandon Iran deal.

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In a cable sent afterwards, Darroch reportedly indicated re were divisions in Trump's team over decision, and criticised White House for a lack of long-term strategy.

"y can't articulate any 'day-after' strategy; and contacts with State Department this morning suggest sort of plan for reaching out to partners and allies, wher in Europe or region," he wrote.

He reported back that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during his talks with Johnson, "did some subtle distancing by talking throughout about ' President's decision'".

newspaper reported that, according to Darroch, Pompeo also hinted that he h tried but failed to "sell" a revised text to Trump.

In 2015, United States, China, Britain, France, Russia and Germany signed a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for a partial lifting of international ecomic sanctions.

Trump h long been critical of deal and withdrew United States on May 8, 2018.

As well as a government investigation into leaks, police are also looking into a potential breach of Official Secrets Act.

London's Metropolitan Police sparked widespre condemnation on July 13 after a warning to journalists that publishing leaked documents could be a criminal matter.

Johnson, who is w in race to succeed May as prime minister, said that prosecuting media outlets would have a "chilling effect on public debate". 

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