U.S. President Donald Trump Slams Iran Nuclear Deal As “Insane” and “Ridiculous”

U.S. President Donald Trump is hosting his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the White House on a bilateral visit. During his meeting with Macron, Trump railed against the Iran nuclear deal, calling the Obama administration-negotiated agreement "insane" and "ridiculous" for failing to contain Tehran. He went on to add that Iran’s actions have been “brutal.”

Trump’s tirade against the Iran nuclear deal came in front of Macron who supports it and has been talking to the U.S. President to remain a part of it. The Iran nuclear deal was referred to as the P5+1 deal as the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States—plus Germany were part of the negotiations that led to Iran giving up enrichment of uranium that would have allowed it to develop nuclear weapons. Under the agreement, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%, and reduce by about two-thirds the number of its gas centrifuges for 13 years. For the next 15 years, Iran will only enrich uranium up to 3.67%. Iran also agreed not to build any new heavy-water facilities for the same period of time. Trump says that the deal which was negotiated by the Barack Obama administration is extremely weak and will allow Tehran to acquire nuclear bombs eventually.

During his media briefing in the Cabinet Room, Trump also threatened Iran with unspecified punishment if they resume their nuclear program. "They will have bigger problems than they ever had before," he said.

The French President’s visit comes even as the May 12 deadline looms near, which the U.S. president has been threatening to reject extending. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel will follow her French counterpart and is due to visit the White House on Friday to make a last-minute bid to dissuade Trump from tanking the Iran agreement.

After Trump’s outburst on the Iran deal, Macron said that everyone’s concerns have been taken on board and hinted at a possible new deal which would try to alleviate Donald Trump’s concerns.

However, Iran who has been granted relief from a string of sanctions after agreeing to the deal has been quick to react to Trump’s pronouncements. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called on US President Donald Trump to uphold the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, or "face severe consequences". In a televised speech, Rouhani said the "Iranian government will react firmly" if the White House fails to "live up to their commitments" under the agreement.

Rouhani’s statements come just 48 hours after his Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in an interview with U.S. broadcaster CBS aired on Sunday, said that Iran could consider "resuming at much greater speed" their nuclear activities if the U.S. were to not uphold its part of the agreement.

Trump’s stance on the Iran nuclear deal is being called foolish by many as he is attempting to get North Korea’s Kim Jong-un on board for “denuclearization” talks and the question is, why should Pyongyang put faith in the Trump Administration when it is refusing to uphold an agreement with another country.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 25, 2018 03:02 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).