President Trump reportedly told French President Emmanuel Macron he intends to announce that the U.S. will pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
Macron and Trump spoke by phone Tuesday morning, hours before the president will announce the future of the 2015 agreement.
[Opinion: What happens when the US withdraws from the Iran nuclear deal]
According to the New York Times, the U.S. is expected to reinstate sanctions against Iran that were waived as part of the deal, which was negotiated under former President Barack Obama’s administration and signed in 2015. A source told the New York Times the Trump administration will also place additional economic penalties on Tehran.
However, Macron’s office refuted the New York Times’ story and said Trump did not tell his French counterpart of his plans for the future of the Iran deal, according to Reuters.
The president has railed against the Iran deal frequently, calling it the “worst deal ever negotiated” and vowed during the 2016 campaign to either withdraw the U.S. from the agreement or renegotiate it. A second source told the New York Times that negotiations over the nuclear deal crumbled after the president insisted Iran face sharp limits on its nuclear fuel production after 2030. The current accord lifts those limits.
In January, U.S. officials started working alongside European counterparts to make changes to the deal in an effort to satisfy Trump’s concerns and prevent the U.S. from withdrawing. But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly told officials from France, Germany and the United Kingdom last week the negotiated changes wouldn’t change Trump’s mind.
The main issue for the president is the nuclear deal’s so-called “sunset clauses,” which allow Iran to progressively ramp up the enrichment of nuclear material.
[Also read: US exit from Iran nuclear deal may jeopardize billions in jet sales]
Macron, along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, visited Trump at the White House during separate trips last month and urged Trump to remain in the Iran deal.
The two European leaders have acknowledged the agreement is flawed, but believe it should be preserved.
Reports the president is expected to withdraw the U.S. from the nuclear deal led the Kremlin to warn a “very serious situation” would emerge. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday a decision from the U.S. to leave the deal would carry “unavoidable drastic consequences.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he expects Iran will “face some problems” for two to three months if the U.S. pulls out of the deal, but said the country “will pass through this.”
Rouhani said Iran will continue “working with the world and constructive engagement with the world.”
