President Donald Trump could start a war if he chooses to fully withdraw from the Iran deal later this month, French President Emmanuel Macron, who recently visited the White House to discuss the matter, warned over the weekend.
Macron said in an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel that exiting the Iran deal "would mean opening Pandora's box." "It could mean war," he said Saturday, adding, "I don't believe that Donald Trump wants war."
During Macron's three-day visit to Washington in April, he urged Trump to uphold the 2015 deal between Iran, the U.S. and other world leaders that had been brokered by Trump's predecessor, President Barack Obama. After their private talks, Macron said he wasn't confident Trump was going to take his advice. "My view is…that he will get rid of this deal on his own, for domestic reasons," Macron said at the time.
Trump has until May 12 to go along with the deal or call it off, and he has repeatedly signaled that the arrangement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, does not benefit the U.S. and should be amended. The deal loosens longtime economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit its nuclear program.
Trump has called the deal "insane" and said it "never, ever should have been made."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned the U.S. that leaving the deal could prove disastrous. He said as recently as Sunday that Washington would regret severing ties with Tehran.
"If the United States leaves the nuclear agreement, you will soon see that they will regret it like never before in history," Rouhani said in a televised speech from northwestern Iran.
Leaders in France, as well as the United Kingdom and Germany, which are also part of the agreement, have called on Trump to work with Iran.
Sir Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the United States, said Sunday that Trump had not made a decision yet to leave the pact and could stay in it if negotiations between Washington and Tehran on possible changes to the agreement work out.
"We have ideas we think that we can find some language, produce some action that meets the president's concerns," Darroch told CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday. "The president is rightly concerned about Iran's regional activities, which are malign and damaging to security and stability. And he doesn't like the fact that ballistic missiles aren't covered. He's not happy about the sunset clauses, he thinks the inspections regime should be tougher."
Trump has been opaque about what he will do next. "I'm not telling you what I'm doing, but a lot of people think they know," Trump said recently. "And on or before the 12th, we'll make a decision."
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Cristina Silva has written for the Associated Press, the Tampa Bay Times, the Boston Globe, the Miami Herald, Salon, International Business ... Read more
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