WASHINGTON _ Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on his first full day on the job, said Friday it was "unlikely" that President Donald Trump will remain in the Iran nuclear deal after a May 12 self-imposed deadline barring a "substantial fix" negotiated with European leaders.
Speaking on the margins of a NATO summit for foreign ministers in Brussels, Pompeo said no decision has been made but that he was communicating Trump's position to allies in Europe and the Middle East.
"Absent a substantial fix, absent overcoming the flaws of the deal, he (Trump) is unlikely to stay in that deal," Pompeo said.
Trump has said he will decide by May 12 whether to withdraw from the 2015 international accord and unilaterally reimpose U.S. sanctions on Tehran.
He has repeatedly lambasted the agreement, which has successfully blocked Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon, and has threatened to "rip it up."
European allies have sought to persuade Trump to remain a partner to the deal and have been negotiating a series of possible supplemental agreements to address his concerns.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Trump at the White House on Friday, two days after French President Emmanuel Macron made a similar pitch during a state visit to Washington. The United States, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China signed the deal with Iran.
Trump and other critics say the accord lets some of the nuclear restrictions on Iran expire over time. They also lambaste the fact that the nuclear negotiations did not address Iran's ballistic missile program or its support for militant groups elsewhere in the Middle East.
