US president to face EU pressure over Iran nuclear deal

A senior Russian diplomat has urged the US to stop using “methods of blatant blackmail and intimidation” aimed at forcing Iran out of a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, saying Washington will be responsible if the accord collapses.

France insists that the multilateral nuclear deal between Iran and major world powers, which has been severely targeted by the United States, must be saved and Tehran’s continued participation in it ensured.

International Desk

Iran’s Foreign Ministry quashed rumors that it is getting ready to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the multilateral nuclear agreement from which the US withdrew in May.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has underscored Moscow's readiness to remain committed to a landmark nuclear deal Iran signed with major powers in 2015 despite the US move to pull out from the agreement.

By Roger Cohen*

By Jon Gambrell*

Keeping the international nuclear deal with Iran is a top priority for Germany and it cannot be renegotiated, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday as a May 12 deadline looms for the US to decide on restoring US sanctions on Tehran.

More than one hundred American political and military figures in a statement urged US President Donald Trump to stay in Iran nuclear deal.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch opponent of the Iran deal, against serious repercussions of a US decision to pull out of the multilateral agreement, saying such a move would plunge the Middle East into war.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian ruled out any alteration to the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, saying that the agreement “must not be touched.”

A senior member of the European Parliament says the EU strongly supports the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, calling for closer ties with Tehran within the framework of the landmark accord.

(By Seyed Hossein Mousavian*) After months of threatening to undo the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Donald Trump once again opted to extend the deal by waiving economic sanctions on Iran. This was the “last chance,” he declared in a Jan. 12 statement, “to either fix the deal’s disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw.”

The EU and other world powers have repeatedly warned it would be a mistake for anyone to abandon the deal, thrashed out with Iran over 12 years by the US, Britain, France, China, Germany and Russia