U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday went on President Trump’s favorite TV show to urge him not to quit the Iran nuclear deal, although agreeing with the president’s assessment that it is a
U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday went on President Trump’s favorite TV show to urge him not to quit the Iran nuclear deal, although agreeing with the president’s assessment that it is a bad deal.
He stressed that there was no “Plan B” if the U.S. nixes the deal.
“The president has a legitimate point,” Mr. Johnson said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” which Mr. Trump regularly views. “He set a challenge for the world. We think that what you can do is be tougher on Iran.”
He said ripping up the Iran deal would be like “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”
Mr. Trump has set a Saturday deadline to decide whether to pull out of the Obama-era agreement that lifted economic sanctions on Iran in return for halting the Islamic regime’s nuclear program until 2025.
Mr. Johnson is in Washington this week but will not meet with the president. He took to the airwaves to deliver his message to Mr. Trump.
Similar appeals were delivered directly to Mr. Trump in visits last month by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. France, Germany and the U.K., as well as China and Russia, joined the U.S. in negotiating the deal.
Mr. Trump’s concerns, from more rigorous inspections of Iran nuclear facilities to extending the moratorium beyond 2025, would be addressed by building on the current deal, Mr. Johnson said.
“As I say, a Plan B does not seem to me to be particularly well developed at this stage,” the foreign secretary said.
If Iran begins fast-tracking a nuclear weapon, the option of bombing its nuclear facilities or allowing a nuclear arms race in the volatile Middle East were both bad options, Mr. Johnson said.
“At the moment there does not seem to be a viable military solution,” he said.
