French President Emmanuel Macron believes US President Donald Trump is leaning towards getting the US out of the Iran nuclear deal. The US leader is not ready to go back on his pre-election promise, Macron told media.
"Just like you do, I listen to what President Trump is saying, and it seems to me that he is not very much eager to defend [the Iran nuclear deal]... I have in mind that it is his campaign commitment that he made a long time ago. So I do not know what the American decision will be, but if you take a rational look at the announcements and the comments made by President Trump, it seems to me that he will not do his utmost to preserve the JCPOA," Macron said during a press conference at the George Washington University at the end of his three-day trip to the US.
Macron also reiterated his plan to expand the nuclear deal with Iran to include provisions for restraining Tehran's influence in the Middle East. He called the JCPOA, under which Iran agreed to abandon its nuclear program and which is set to expire in 2025 if it does not fall apart before that, just one of four "pillars." The others include forcing Iran to also abandon its ballistic missile development and containing its influence in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. In return, the Western powers will not reintroduce economic sanctions against Tehran.
The fact that he appears to be unable to change Trump’s mind on the deal, which has been hanging in the balance for over a year, does not mean that the trip was a failure, Macron said, noting that his goal was to push for a new, much broader agreement that would include Iran and the US.
“I want to be the honest broker of the situation,” Macron said.
Analysts are skeptical that Tehran would accept any new deal, especially one which simply makes more demands of it, since it has lost any trust it might have had in the US and its allies.
On Wednesday, Russian news agency TASS quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov who called on all countries to do their utmost in order to preserve and implement the Iran nuclear deal. “We believe it as an irrevocable condition that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) should be strengthened, preserved and that its functioning in its current form should be ensured in the future.”
Of course, Donald Trump is exactly right, the Iran nuclear “deal” is a horrible deal for America. Barack Hussein Obama “negotiated” that Iran get all the goodies up front and then put them on a path to get nuclear weapons to threaten the world in a few short years. Iran has been testing ballistic missiles in the mean time, which doesn’t technically violate the deal but surely breaks the agreement in spirit.
So, of course, the Russian diplomatic corps is doing its best to keep the deal in place, so the goodies keep flowing to all.
All I can say is Thank God for Donald Trump! Someone who actually stands up for the national security of the country instead of selling it to the highest bidder. No, there won’t be any more plane loads of cash flowing to Tehran in the middle of the night so the mullahs can distribute it to their militias and terror armies around the world.
Iran and Russia are already bragging to Israel that their client-state, Syria, already has the highly capable, Russian-produced, S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to threaten the Jewish state. If the Iran deal continues, expect the weapons sales to continue, a bonanza for the Kremlin and Tehran, and a nightmare for Israel and American aircraft operating in the region.
Europe is on board because it wants to make a lot of money from the Iranian’s new-found riches, damn the consequences.
It’s time the White House end this charade and protect the American people, as Donald Trump’s instincts tell him to do.
When French President Emmanuel Macron explained his vision for a "four-part" new accord that would introduce further restrictions on Iran's ballistic missile program while preserving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (better known as the Iran deal), his revelation took his European allies completely by surprise.
Macron's vision, which he outlined during a White House press conference on Tuesday, pushed the limits of international diplomacy by essentially doing an end-run around his regional allies, according to two sources who spoke with Bloomberg.
That case ran headlong into Trump’s competing instincts on foreign policy and caught fellow European powers off guard. Coordination within the European Union took place before Macron left for Washington, but once there the French president introduced elements that hadn’t been discussed in advance, according to two EU officials. The French will need to brief the rest of the EU on those issues, said the officials, who asked not to be named discussing strategy.
However, if Macron can convince Trump to stay in the deal - or at least delay a decision past a May 12 deadline imposed by the US - the other signatories may have no choice but to fall in line. But there are still problems with Macron's pitch - including the fact that it indulges Trump's desire to be "half-pregnant", that is, to preserve the JCPOA while imposing further restrictions that might chafe the Iranians.
The deal outlined by Macron would involve adopting further restrictions on the Iranian nuclear program after 2025, when the JCPOA restrictions are set to expire. It would also call for a halt to Iran's ballistic missile program while constraining its regional influence. But as President Trump said during Tuesday's press conference (where he blasted the Iran deal as "insane" and "ridiculous", "nobody knows" what the US is planning on May 12 - well, nobody aside from Macron.
But while analysts now half-expect the Trump administration to find some excuse to keep negotiations going past May 12, the ascendance of John Bolton, Mike Pompeo and other neoconservative Iran hawks in the Trump administration has raised the possibility that they could sabotage a new deal, should a formal agreement take shape. However, the looming talks with North Korea could also convince Trump to at least delay his decision to withdraw from the deal as he tries to avoid legitimizing the rhetoric of Iranian leaders, who've warned that pulling out of the Iran accord would prove to the international community (and the North in particular) that the US can't be trusted.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has repeatedly dared the US to prove to the world that it is ready to honor its commitments. Rouhani told a state-run news network that the US should "first go and respect what you have signed". He also questioned why the US is negotiating for another deal with its European allies, saying Iran had not signed off on these new negotiations.
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