Backers of Iran nuclear deal wage last-ditch blitz seeking to sway Trump

PARIS — Backers of the Iranian nuclear deal joined in last-ditch appeals to President Trump to preserve the pact even as they braced Tuesday for a possible major break with the White House.

Just hours before Trump was scheduled to announce his move on the Iran deal — which he has repeatedly denounced — key allies and others amplified their worries that any risks to the landmark accord could send the region on a more dangerous and uncertain path.

“That would mean opening Pandora’s box. It could mean war,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking to Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine in an article published Saturday. “I don’t believe that Donald Trump wants war.”

Trump has been a longtime critic of the Iran nuclear agreement — a signature foreign policy achievement of the Obama administration — which placed curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions.

Inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency have said Iran is compliance with the accord. But Trump has taken issue with provisions that lift some restrictions on Iran’s nuclear efforts in years to come. Any move to roll back U.S. backing for the deal could threaten the entire accord, many backers of the deal worry.

[Trump expected to put up new obstacles to Iran deal]

“We remain convinced that this agreement will make the world a safer place, and without it, the world will become more dangerous,” said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Monday in Berlin, speaking at a joint news conference with French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

During a visit to Washington on Monday, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson appeared on “Fox & Friends”, a favorite morning television program of Trump’s, to plead with the U.S. president. Johnson acknowledge the deal was flawed, but urged Trump not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

Johnson’s remarks elaborated on an op-ed for the New York Times on Sunday. “Only Iran would gain from abandoning the restrictions on its nuclear program,” he wrote.

The leaders of China and Russia — also signers of the 2015 deal — echoed the sentiment coming out of Europe: abandoning the deal would be dangerous, and could lead to heightened geopolitical insecurity.

In Moscow, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov warned that a U.S. exit from the Iran deal would create a “very serious situation” with “unavoidable drastic consequences.”

Peskov noted that Russia’s position mirrored those of U.S. allies in Western Europe, underscoring Russia’s readiness to take advantage of a transatlantic rift over the Iran deal to build closer ties to the E.U.

“From a strategic framework perspective, [Russia’s] position absolutely coincides with the position taken by the leaders of European capitals, who are also not proponents of ripping up the foundational document,” Peskov said.

In Tehran, Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, said the country could face “some problems” if Trump attempts to undercut the deal, but noted that Iran will continue “constructive engagement with the world.” That appeared to be a reference to the Europe Union and others who have resumed business ties with Iran since the deal.

[How killing the Iran nuclear deal could embolden Tehran]

Iran’s first vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, took a harder view of a possible U.S. step away from the pact — with an apparent message to North Korea ahead of expected talks with Trump. Janangiri said any nation would be “naive” to negotiate with the United States.

Last week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry likewise urged all signatories to uphold the existing agreement.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. agency monitoring the deal, has also said on numerous occasions that Iran has complied with the terms.

Macron, who among European leaders arguably enjoys the strongest personal rapport with Trump, held direct talks with Trump in mid-April during a three-day state visit to Washington. German Chancellor Angela Merkel came for a shorter visit later in the same week.

Johnson’s visit, days before Trump’s expected announcement, also saw the British foreign secretary resort to flattery, saying that Trump deserved a Nobel Prize if he made the right decision.

“If he can fix North Korea and if he can fix the Iran nuclear deal, then I don’t see why he’s any less of a candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize than Barack Obama, who got it before he even did anything,” Johnson said.

According to The Washington Post, citing current and former U.S. and foreign officials, Trump is expected to stop short of abandoning the deal altogether, but could reimpose U.S. sanctions, which were waived when the deal was signed.

Although reimposing sanctions on Iran would not technically constitute an American exit from the deal, it could constitute a step toward dismantling the agreement.

In Europe in particular, the prospect of new sanctions has caused significant anxiety, considering the economic relationships between European companies and Iranian industry since the deal was signed in 2015.

European Union data indicate a 79 percent increase in the E.U.’s trade with Iran since the deal was implemented. Overall, European investment in Iran topped at more than $12 billion in 2016, according to E.U. statistics.

“Sanctions could create a lot of uncertainty for European businesses. They are quite scared,” said a European diplomat, who added that companies should drop investments in infrastructures in the event of a U.S. departure.

In recent weeks, European leaders have sought to emphasize that they are open to negotiations about particular terms in the deal — as long as the deal itself is preserved.

“It’s not about tearing apart an agreement and have nothing, but it’s about building something new that will cover all of our concerns,” Macron said, during his visit to Washington last month.

To that end, Macron, standing next to Trump in a bilateral news conference, announced the prospect of “a new deal with four pillars” that would address both American and European concerns over the ongoing situation in Iran.

Anton Troianovski in Moscow, Luisa Beck in Berlin, Quentin Ariès in Brussels and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.

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