Pars Today

Japan has become the latest country to announce its support for a landmark nuclear agreement reached between Iran and P5+1 group of countries in 2015, amid almost singular opposition by the United States administration.

The US, under President Donald Trump, has sought to undermine the deal by calling for renegotiation and threatening to unilaterally withdraw from it.

The Japanese foreign minister called his Iranian counterpart on Monday to say that Japan supported the deal, according to NHK, Japan’s national public broadcasting organization.

Foreign Minister Taro Kono of Japan also told Iran’s Mohammad Javad Zarif that it was important for Iran to play a constructive role in regional stability.

Zarif, for his part, appreciated Japan’s stance on the nuclear accord and reiterated that Iran had been committed to the deal and would continue to do so.

The phone conversation came three days after Trump said he would not certify Iran’s compliance with the terms of nuclear accord — officially titled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — under a domestic American law. Later, on Monday, Trump further termed the JCPOA “a horrible deal for the United States” and warned that the agreement’s “total termination” was “a very real possibility.”
Separately on Tuesday, Ex-French president Francois Hollande slammed Trump’s policy toward the Iran deal, saying that the US president’s “unpredictability” threatened global stability.

“Donald Trump’s decision not to certify the accord and to demand that Congress strengthen sanctions is, to my eyes, a double fault,” Hollande told a conference in Seoul.

Trump has said his administration is working with the US Congress to “strengthen enforcement” of the deal, including by planning more sanctions against Iran.

Hollande accused Trump of “damaging the credibility of any future negotiations with North Korea” and stressed that the US president’s actions showed a “deep misunderstanding of the negotiation’s purpose.”

EA