Macron says US will axe Iran deal
WASHINGTON: French President Emmanuel Macron said he thinks US President Donald Trump will withdraw from the Iran nuclear accord, dealing a blow to the six-nation agreement reached in 2015 and endorsed by world powers.
“I believe he will get rid of this deal for domestic reasons,” Mr Macron told journalists yesterday in Washington, adding that he encouraged the American president to stay in the accord during his three-day visit to Washington.
Mr Macron, who later said he had “no insider” information on Mr Trump’s decision, said a US withdrawal from the accord, which continues to be endorsed by the United Nations and supported by all the other parties to the agreement, would lead to a period of increased tensions and uncertainty over Iranian and US reactions.
Oil prices were little changed in the wake of Mr Macron’s statements.
Mr Macron’s comments come a day after he and Mr Trump hosted a news conference in which the French president proposed a new agreement which would try to address many of Mr Trump’s concerns about the six-party accord, which he has called “insane” and the “worst deal ever.” Keeping the US in the agreement reached during the Obama administration has been a priority for Mr Macron and European leaders ahead of a May 12 deadline for Mr Trump to continue to waive American sanctions that were lifted as part of the deal.
Read a QuickTake on where Mr Trump’s scorn for the Iran deal could lead.
That deadline means there’s still time for Mr Trump to decide to stay in the accord for now. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be in Washington today and will reiterate Mr Macron’s message about staying in the accord. But two of the president’s key foreign policy advisers, new National Security Adviser John Bolton and his nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, have both long opposed the agreement as contrary to American interests.
Though his suggestion of a new, separate agreement appeared to surprise Mr Macron’s own European allies, Mr Trump seemed at least somewhat interested in the French president’s blueprint, calling it a “new deal” with “solid foundations.” Teams of American negotiators have been working with European allies for weeks on a new accord. Like Mr Macron, their biggest challenge is the absence of any guarantee that Mr Trump will accept the result.
But any desire Mr Trump had for the French proposal, and the close relationship he has established with Mr Macron, didn’t appear to overcome his steadfast opposition to the existing agreement.
Iran negotiated the agreement, providing for curbs on its nuclear program in return for relief from many of the sanctions weighing on its economy, with China, France, Russia, Germany, the UK and the US in 2015. Regular assessments by the International Atomic Energy Agency since the deal took effect have found Iran in full compliance with its obligations.
But that argument has never persuaded Mr Trump, who has sought tougher penalties on Iran’s ballistic missile program and Tehran’s role in the Middle East.
At points during his campaign for the presidency in 2016, Mr Trump had vowed to tear up the agreement on his first day in office. While that didn’t happen, the 90-day deadlines for him to continue waiving sanctions, built into a law passed by Congress, have forced the issue onto his desk at regular intervals, adding to uncertainty over its future.
Within minutes of the two leaders sitting down in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Mr Trump ridiculed the existing agreement as “terrible”, “insane” and “ridiculous”. Mr Trump went on to threaten Iran with “a price like few countries have ever paid” if the Tehran government restarted their nuclear program in response to an American withdrawal from the accord.
Some pundits expressed their belief that pending talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may be weighing heavily on Mr Trump.