8 May 2018 11:11 am Views - 1110
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson used an opinion piece in the New York Times Sunday to pressure US President Donald Trump over the Iran nuclear deal.
Johnson is in Washington this week for talks with the Trump administration ahead of the May 12 deadline for the US president to decide whether to continue backing the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran or reimpose sanctions on Tehran, which would mean scrapping the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“At this delicate juncture, it would be a mistake to walk away from the nuclear agreement and remove the restraints that it places on Iran,” Johnson wrote in the Times.
The deal - sealed by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama with the support of China, Russia, Germany, France and Britain - eased sanctions on Tehran in exchange for commitments to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.
The deal had prevented a nuclear arms race among the Middle East’s current “civil wars and internecine conflicts,” Johnson wrote.
The agreement’s weaknesses could be fixed, he added. “I believe that keeping the deal’s constraints on Iran’s nuclear programme will also help counter Tehran’s aggressive regional behaviour,” the foreign secretary wrote.
“I am sure of one thing: every available alternative is worse. The wisest course would be to improve the handcuffs rather than break them,” he concluded.
Johnson is due to meet Vice President Mike Pence, national security adviser John Bolton and key foreign policy leaders in Congress this week.
New York (dpa),
7 May 2018
Iran, (Daily Mail), 6 May 2018 - In a televised speech in northwestern Iran on Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned that the United States would regret it ‘like never before’ if they decided to quit a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from the agreement when it comes up for renewal on May 12, demanding his country’s European allies ‘fix the terrible flaws’ or he will re-impose sanctions.