Emmanuel Macron to Press Trump to Keep Iran Nuclear Deal

Emmanuel Macron to Press Trump to Keep Iran Nuclear Deal

WASHINGTON — President Trump will come under increasing pressure from visiting French and German leaders this week not to scrap the nuclear agreement with Iran next month as American and European negotiators make halting progress toward toughening the limits on Tehran.

President Emmanuel Macron of France arrived Monday at the White House for the first state visit of Mr. Trump’s presidency, intent on using his unusual bond with the American president to try to persuade him to preserve the Iran deal, at least for now. While not as close personally to Mr. Trump, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany will follow on Friday to reinforce the message.

The back-to-back visits come weeks before a May 12 deadline set by Mr. Trump to “fix” the Iran agreement or walk away from it. Under the agreement, signed in 2015 by President Barack Obama, Iran has curbed its nuclear program in exchange for relief from crippling international sanctions. But Mr. Trump and other critics have assailed it because it begins to expire after a decade and does not block Iran’s missile development or stop it from destabilizing the region.

In recent weeks, American and European negotiators have generally come to a shared position on measures to constrain Iran’s ballistic missile program, according to people briefed on the talks. But negotiators remain divided over how to extend the restrictions of the original agreement that otherwise will lapse starting in 2025.

Most importantly, the Europeans want assurances that if a supplemental agreement is reached, the United States will stay in the deal — a hard commitment for American officials to make given Mr. Trump’s mercurial nature — but European leaders hope they can persuade him to hold off by showing enough progress in negotiations that he can claim he is making the deal better.

“I suspect that this will be a very difficult conversation,” said Wendy R. Sherman, the former top State Department official who negotiated the Iran deal for Mr. Obama. “I’m sure that Macron will say how important staying in the deal is to a strong trans-Atlantic relationship in all things, particularly security. I think Merkel will deliver the same message on Friday.”

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Even so, the White House signaled Monday that Mr. Trump enters the talks with one set impression: “He thinks it’s a bad deal — that certainly has not changed,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary.

If Mr. Macron and Ms. Merkel can persuade Mr. Trump to stick by the Iran agreement for now, it could influence the president’s forthcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader who already has a small nuclear arsenal. Whatever its flaws, American officials understand that canceling the Iran deal days or weeks before that meeting might complicate Mr. Trump’s chances of making an agreement with Mr. Kim.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, implicitly made that point on Monday by noting that the negotiations that led to the nuclear agreement between his country and six world powers involved give and take by all sides.

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“And now the United States is saying, ‘What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is negotiable. But whatever I gave you, now I want it back,’” Mr. Zarif said in an interview with The National Interest, a Washington policy magazine. “Who would, in their right mind, deal with the U.S. anymore?”

Mr. Trump faces conflicting positions among his own advisers as he reconstitutes his national security team. John R. Bolton, his new national security adviser, has long advocated simply ending the Iran deal, while Mike Pompeo, set to become secretary of state, is open to keeping it if strong new provisions can be negotiated.

Mr. Macron arrived in Washington to a festive welcome: American and French flags flew on Pennsylvania Avenue as he and his wife, Brigitte Macron, arrived at the White House and were greeted by Mr. Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump.

Mr. Macron reached in for a hug and kissed Mr. Trump on both cheeks, French-style, a sign of their warm ties. The two couples headed inside for a few minutes and then out to the South Lawn, smiling and chatting casually as cameras recorded the moment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/23/world/europe/trump-macron-france-iran.html