U.S. President Donald Trump is due to make a final decision on whether or not to withdraw from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal with Iran.
The date for the decision was originally set for Friday, May 12; it is now brought forward to Tuesday. It is unclear whether President Trump wants to renegotiate the agreement or simply withdraw. The US President believes that the deal will financially benefit Tehran without halting its nuclear programme.
With a mixture of flattery and ultimatums, Europe is trying to prevent Washington from sabotaging the agreement, irreparably damaging the Euro-Atlantic strategic consensus.
In a joint press conference on Monday, France and Germany made clear that Europe will follow its own foreign policy trajectory is Washington withdraws from the nuclear deal with Iran.
The German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that Washington had no "justifiable reason” to pull out and made clear that "we want to adhere to this agreement.”
The French foreign minister Le Drian said France, Britain and Germany would keep to the 2015 nuclear deal, which "safeguards against nuclear proliferation.”
On Monday, Boris Johnson appeared on Fox & Friends — Trump’s favourite TV show — to makethe case that while the agreement with Iran was not ideal, "it is the best thing that we have at the moment.” In another interview with MCNBC, he said that the deal was needed to stop Iran from developing Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and ensure access to monitors that oversee the country’s uranium enrichment programme.
Meanwhile, Iran President warned that President Trump would regret a US pullout from the agreement.
