US, France to refresh the old nuclear deal with Iran

Washington, April 25: The US and France have called for a new nuclear deal with Iran after the US President Donald Trump denounced the three-year-old accord as “insane.”

US President Donald Trump, who is skeptical of a nuclear accord that was struck between the world powers and Iran in 2015, discussed the issue with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Washington on Tuesday.

Trump spoke about doing a much bigger deal, adding that any new agreement must be built on solid foundations.

Macron said a new pact must cover Iran's ballistic missile programme and its role in the Middle East. “I can say that we have had very frank discussions on that, just the two of us,” Macron told a joint press conference with Trump at his side.

 

The US President has been threatening to reject an extension of the Obama-era nuclear pact. Iran has warned of severe consequences if the US withdrew from the deal. The 2015 deal provides for curbs to Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for relief from financial sanctions.

“I think we will have a great shot at doing a much bigger, maybe, deal,” said Trump, stressing that any new deal would have to be built on “solid foundations.”

“This is a deal with decayed foundations. It’s a bad deal, it’s a bad structure. It’s falling down,” the US leader said. “We’re going to see what happens on the May 12th.”