MACRON: WE WANT TO WORK ON A NEW IRAN DEAL
After meeting French president, Trump says Tehran’s regional actions would also be crucial to negotiations
French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday said that he wanted to work on a new deal with Iran and that talks with President Donald Trump would help to forge this new agreement.
Speaking alongside Mr Trump after their White House meeting, Mr Macron emphasised the need to cover all topics with Iran, including an end to their ballistic missile programme. He also called for a political solution to the Iranian problem in the region.
“France is not naive when it comes to Iran,” Mr Macron said. He warned against a “unilateral replacement” of the deal and called for a solution that would also involve Turkey and Russia.
Mr Trump said it would be possible to agree to a new deal with new foundations.
While Mr Macron emphasised the need to work on a new deal, Mr Trump stressed that Tehran’s regional activities would be crucial to negotiations.
He said Paris and Washington agreed that “Iran cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons”, and that the Iranian “regime must end its support of terrorism”.
He urged Arab states to increase their financial efforts in the areas liberated from ISIL.
“Iran must not be able to profit from the anti-ISIL campaign,” Mr Trump said.
After yesterday’s Oval Office meeting between the two leaders, the US preisdent said the 2015 Iran nuclear deal “should have never been made”.
He called the agreement terrible, insane and ridiculous because of its failure to address Iran’s missile programme and role in the region.
The statement touched on two of three key issues – the ballistic missile threat, Iran’s role in the region and the sunset clause that spelt out when the agreement would expire.
Addressing Tehran’s regional role, Mr Trump argued that Iran is to blame for the region’s malaise.
“No matter where you go in the Middle East, wherever you go, Iran is behind it,” he said.
Iran, he lamented, is “allowed to test missiles all over the place”.
Mr Trump appeared untroubled by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s threat to accelerate the nuclear programme and enrichment if the US were to walk out of the deal.
“If they restart their nuclear programme, they will have bigger problems than they ever had before,” he said.
But recent reports suggest that advances had been made by the EU and the US on an agreement to strengthen the deal.
“American and European negotiators have made progress towards side agreements that would lay out new standards for Iran to meet or risk the reimposition of sanctions by the West,” The New York Times reported on Monday.
Mr Macron was more reserved, saying the Iran deal would have to be addressed “as part of the broader picture, which is security in the overall region”.
Ali Vaez, director of the Iran
project at the International Crisis Group, told The National that Mr Trump’s comments “do not necessarily mean he will abandon the deal, but it proves that it is unlikely that the US will stabilise the nuclear deal regardless of what compromises the Europeans put on the table”.
Mr Vaez said that Mr Trump’s “animus towards the Iran nuclear deal is not new. But outright rejection of the longstanding European allies’ pleas to keep the US in the deal will undoubtedly hurt transatlantic ties”.
The US will be making a decision by May 12 on whether to certify the deal, drop out of it and reimpose sanctions, or agree on a US-EU framework that would impose stricter regulations on Iran while keeping the deal.
The two leaders also discussed the Syrian conflict, trade, defence spending and developments in relations with North Korea.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Washington tomorrow as part of a co-ordinated European effort to discuss the same issues with the White House.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will follow Mr Macron to the US to discuss trade and security with Mr Trump