The leaders of Germany and France will urge U.S. President Donald Trump not to pull out of an Iran nuclear deal with major powers since doing so could cause major problems, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday, Reuters reports.
Trump has given the European signatories of the deal a May 12 deadline to “fix the terrible flaws” of the 2015 nuclear agreement, or he will refuse to extend U.S. sanctions relief on Iran.
Maas said that in upcoming meetings in Washington, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron would urge Trump to stay in the deal. The agreement offered Tehran relief from sanctions in exchange for curbing its nuclear program.
“We believe it is extremely important to uphold this agreement. Were it to fail or the U.S. to drop out, we would not have anything comparable to it and we fear that the situation would significantly deteriorate with everything that goes with it,” he told reporters.
Maas, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, also said the G7 would formally call on Russia to contribute to solving the crisis in Syria.
Asked what the final communique from the two-day meeting would say, Maas told reporters that “It establishes again that there will be no political solution in Syria without Russia ... and that Russia has to contribute its share to such a solution.”