Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says there has been no decision made on any U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement but Washington is working with its European allies to see if there are ways to improve the pact.
"The decision has not been made whether we can repair it enough to stay in it, or if the president is going to decide to withdraw from it," Mattis told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday.
He said the U.S. recognizes the nuclear pact was an "imperfect arms control agreement." "It is written almost with the assumption that Iran would try to cheat. So the verification, what is in there, is actually pretty robust," Mattis said. "Whether or not that is sufficient, I think that is a valid question."
French President Emmanuel Macron, who just wrapped up a U.S. visit, said Wednesday he believes U.S. President Donald Trump will pull the United States out of the nuclear agreement.
"I don't know what the American decision will be but the rational analysis of all [of] President Trump's statements does not lead me to believe that he will do everything to stay in the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal)," Macron told a news conference at the conclusion of his three-day state visit.
Asked if such a decision would indicate a personal failure, Macron said his role was not to convince Trump to "walk away from campaign commitments, but rather to prove that the agreement makes sense.”
Earlier Wednesday, Macron urged U.S. lawmakers to ensure the United States does not abandon the Iran nuclear deal.
"Iran shall never possess nuclear weapons, not in five years, not in 10 years, never," Macron declared in a ringing, 49-minute speech to both chambers of the U.S. Congress.
Trump is set to decide next month whether to renew sanctions relief for Iran. The agreement lifts sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits on the country's nuclear development.
The U.S. president has called the agreement "insane" and "ridiculous" and has threatened to withdraw from it.
Instead Macron, as he did in talks with Trump Tuesday, called for negotiations for a new agreement with Iran over Tehran's ballistic missile tests and military involvement in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.
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