Trump, Macron call for new nuke deal with Iran

Washington, April 24 

French President Emmanuel Macron and his American counterpart Donald Trump on Tuesday jointly  called for a “new” nuclear deal with Iran, after the US leader denounced the three-year-old accord as “insane’.

After lengthy talks at the White House, Macron told a joint news conference with Trump that they had discussed “a new deal” that would strengthen the 2015 accord along the lines Trump wants, such as by addressing Iran's expansion in the Middle East and its ballistic missile programme.

But with a deadline on US economic sanctions against Iran looming next month, it was unclear whether the two allies made substantial progress on the future of the nuclear deal, which the West sees as vital to preventing Iran from building a nuclear bomb.

Trump continued his hostile rhetoric toward the nuclear deal, calling it terrible, ridiculous and insane and threatening Iran with repercussions should it restart its nuclear programme. “They’re not going to be restarting anything. They restart it they’re going to have big problems, bigger than they’ve ever had before.”

"If Iran threatens us in any way, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid," Trump said.

Trump has until May 12 to decide whether to keep the US in the agreement and is under strong European pressure to remain in it, with Macron saying that while imperfect it holds the best chance of containing Tehran.

Meanwhile, Iran's Hassan Rouhani said the US will face “grave” consequences if Washington decides to withdraw from the 2015 pact that curbed Iran’s controversial nuclear programme in exchange for lifting international sanctions on the Mideast nation. An Iranian official on Tuesday said Tehran might quit a treaty designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, if Trump scraps the agreement. — Agencies

Panel confirms Pompeo as State Secy 

• US President Trump’s nominee for secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Tuesday won a key Congressional panel nod after a Republican senator backed him at the last minute
• During a tense Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting, Pompeo was voted 11-9. In addition to all Republican Senators, Senator Chris Coons was the only Democratic Senator to have voted in support of Pompeo
• Pompeo’s nomination now heads to the Senate for a vote on his confirmation. Pompeo, if confirmed by the Senate, would replace Rex Tillerson as the Secretary of State