Germany committed to Iran nuclear deal – Angela Merkel
Donald Trump announced last week that the US is withdrawing from the accord.
German chancellor Angela Merkel said it would be wrong to cancel the nuclear agreement with Iran, highlighting it as one of her main differences of opinion between Berlin and Washington.
US president Donald Trump announced last week that the US would pull out of the 2015 accord, which is designed to keep Tehran’s nuclear ambitions in check and took over a decade to negotiate.
France and the UK have also pledged to uphold the deal provided Iran keeps up its side of the bargain.
Mrs Merkel used her annual budget speech to parliament to affirm Berlin’s position on the issue, listing the US pullout among several pieces of “troubling news” – along with recent chemical attacks in Syria, violence in Gaza and daily ceasefire breaches in Ukraine.
“This agreement is anything but ideal,” she told MPs, but noted that the UN nuclear watchdog has confirmed Iran is abiding by its terms.
“That’s why we, Britain, France, Germany but also the members of the European Union, believe it’s not right to cancel this agreement in this situation now,” said Mrs Merkel.
“Despite all the problems we have these days,” she added, “trans-Atlantic relations are and remain of paramount importance.”
Mrs Merkel told MPs that Germany’s economy is on a good path and the government plans to increase its spending on defence and scientific research to ensure the country can meet the security challenges of the future and remain a leading industrial power.
During the debate, the co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany, Alice Weidel, was reprimanded by speaker Wolfgang Schaeuble for describing Muslim girls who wear headscarves as “useless people”.
Her party came third in last year’s elections on an anti-immigrant program and is now the largest opposition party in parliament.
