US President Donald Trump ousting of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replacing him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo will threaten the Iran nuclear deal and plunge the world into greater uncertainty, says an American political analyst.

“The question is will Trump follow through on his threats to withdraw from the agreement? At first glance that would seem most likely. But for all of Trump’s impulsiveness, there is at times a hint of reason behind it. His brinkmanship is a means to an end, to make the best deal possible. But what works in the business world does not always translate into the world of Realpolitik where the stakes are much higher,” said Dennis Etler, a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California.

“Trump with his more aggressive trade policies and other actions have alienated EU and other traditional allies from the US. They are far less likely to acquiesce to his demands regarding Iran than previously,” Etler told Press TV on Thursday.

“As many have stated, walking away from the nuclear agreement with Iran would bode ill for any possible agreement with North Korea regarding its nuclear and missile policies. The economic benefits of the accords that Iran expected have also not yet materialized, so it will be easier for her to abandon them as well,” he added.

“Any abandonment of the agreement however will plunge the world into greater uncertainty and danger. The lull in tensions on the Korea peninsula could well reignite, protectionist trade retaliations may mount, relations between the US and both Russia and China may further deteriorate. As Trump feels more cornered, he may feel compelled to lash out. The world is teetering on the brink of catastrophe, unless more sane forces in the US prevail.”

Trump’s new nominees for secretary of state and CIA director are deeply troubling because of their past endorsements of torture, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Trump’s nomination of Mike Pompeo to head the US State Department and Gina Haspel to lead the CIA “do not bode well for US commitments to uphold basic rights and the rule of law at home and abroad,” the US-based rights group said Wednesday.

Last year, Human Rights Watch opposed Pompeo to be CIA director partly because of his prior endorsement of torture. During his Senate confirmation hearing in January 2017, Pompeo failed to explicitly renounce the US government’s use of torture and mass surveillance.

In a speech in January, he implicitly endorsed coercive methods, saying that if CIA officers said they “missed an opportunity to obtain information from a detainee … we’re going to begin to move heaven and earth to make sure that something like that does not ever happen again.”