US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron showed a united front on Tuesday on the Iran nuclear deal, deemed by the American leader as “insane.”
During a joint press conference after talks at the White House, Macron told reporters that they held “very frank” talks on the 2015 agreement.
"We, therefore, wish from now on to work on a new deal with Iran."
"I think we will have a great shot at doing a much bigger, maybe, deal," said Trump, stressing that any new deal would have to be built on "solid foundations."
"This is a deal with decayed foundations. It's a bad deal, it's a bad structure. It's falling down," the US leader said. "We're going to see what happens on the 12th."
When asked to clarify if he meant he was pushing for a new accord, or an add-on agreement, Macron said: "I'm not saying that we move from one agreement to another."
The French president said a new deal would have to include three additional elements: Tehran's ballistic missile program, its influence across the Middle East, and what happens after 2025 -- when under the current accord Iran would be able to progressively restart part of its nuclear program.
He called the initial 2015 deal only the "first pillar" of an eventual wider deal.
Trump's European allies have repeatedly tried to persuade him not to walk away from the 2015 deal, which gave Iran massive sanctions relief and the guarantee of a civilian nuclear program in return for curbs on programs that could be used to develop an atomic weapon.
It did not tackle western complaints about Iran's ballistic missile programs or support for militant groups across the Middle East.
Trump faces a May 12 deadline to decide on its fate and is demanding changes that many in European capitals believe would represent a legal breach.
For months, American and European officials have been working behind the scenes to try to find a compromise over Trump's demands to change the agreement.
Officials have toyed with the idea of a separate joint declaration: promising to tackle non-nuclear issues, while searching for a tougher successor accord.
Iran, meanwhile, has warned it will ramp up enrichment activities if Trump walks away from the accord, prompting Trump to issue a blunt warning.
"They're not going to be restarting anything. If they restart it, they're going to have big problems, bigger than they ever had before. And you can mark it down," the US president said.
“If Iran threatens us in any way, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid,” Trump said.
On Iran’s malignant role in the Middle East, Trump said it was important to not allow its influence to grow in Syria, appearing to go back on a vow to withdraw US troops from the war-torn country.
Stating that troops would be coming home soon, Trump nonetheless said that the United States wanted to "leave a strong and lasting footprint" in the country.
"We don't want to give Iran open season to the Mediterranean," Trump stressed.
"We're going to be coming home relatively soon. We finished at least almost our work with respect to ISIS in Syria, ISIS in Iraq, and we have done a job that nobody has been able to do."
"But with that being said, I do want to come home, but I want to come home also with having accomplished what we have to accomplish."
