LONDON, April 29. /TASS/. Leaders of the United Kingdom, Germany and France have allowed for the possibility of a new deal with Iran over the elements of its nuclear program that the current deal failed to cover, says a press release issued by British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Office on Sunday.
On Saturday and Sunday, May had phone talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
"Acknowledging the importance of retaining the JCPoA, they committed to continue working closely together and with the US on how to tackle the range of challenges that Iran poses - including those issues that a new deal might cover," the press release says.
The three leaders "discussed the importance of the Iran nuclear deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) as the best way of neutralizing the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, agreeing that our priority as an international community remained preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon," it reads.
"They agreed that there were important elements that the deal does not cover, but which we need to address - including ballistic missiles, what happens when the deal expires, and Iran’s destabilizing regional activity," a Downing Street spokesperson said.
In July 2015, Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, Britain, China, the United States and France) and Germany agreed on a settlement of Tehran’s nuclear problem. Under the JCPoA they worked out the UN, US and EU sanctions were to be lifted. Its implementation began in January 2016. Washington lifted the restrictions.
US President Donald Trump has described the agreement with Iran as a "bad deal." He argued that it did not eliminate the possibility Iran might make nuclear weapons, but merely postponed the moment. On January 12, Trump said the United States would quit the deal if certain amendments agreed on with the European countries were not made to it. At the end of April a US administration spokesman said the United States, France, Germany and Britain had achieved progress at negotiations on amendments to the agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, but a final solution had not been identified yet.