NEW YORK (Dispatches) – More than 500 parliamentarians from the UK, France, and Germany published an open letter on Thursday calling on U.S. Congress do all it can to keep the Iran nuclear accord alive and "protect the fruits of successful diplomacy."
The appeal comes as analysts warn that U.S. President Donald Trump could be planning to abandon the Iran nuclear accord as early as next month—particularly with national security adviser and war "fanatic" John Bolton whispering in his ear.
"Together, Europeans and Americans have proved that a strong and united transatlantic partnership can bring about a coalition extending to Russia and China, endorsed by the international community," the lawmakers write.
"But this coalition is now at risk, as the U.S. government moves towards abandoning the (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) without any evidence of Iran not fulfilling its obligations."
Penned just weeks before the May 12 deadline for Trump to recertify the nuclear accord, the open letter also warns that U.S. withdrawal from the deal would do "lasting damage" to "diplomacy as a tool to achieve peace and ensure security."
"We must preserve what took us a decade to achieve and has proved to be effective," the letter concludes.
The parliamentarians' urgent plea for Congress to prevent Trump from ripping up the landmark nuclear accord comes just over a week after Bolton officially began his job as the president's chief national security adviser.
During numerous appearances over the past several years on Fox News and in the pages of some of America's most influential newspapers, Bolton has repeatedly called on the U.S. to launch a military attack on Iran.
Iran’s foreign minister warned on Friday that a U.S. pullout from the international nuclear deal it signed with the Islamic Republic would be met with "measures” that would be "very unfavorable for the Americans.”
Muhammad Javad Zarif’s comments followed a warning Thursday by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that Iran would immediately restart nuclear efforts if Washington walks away from the deal signed between Tehran and world powers in 2015.
Speaking upon his arrival in New York for a six-day trip that will include attending the UN’s two-day High Level Meeting on Peace building and Sustaining Peace, scheduled to start on Tuesday, Zarif said the parley would "give us the opportunity to present the stances of the Islamic Republic of Iran especially in regards to the proposals for establishing dialogue and sustainable security in the Persian Gulf region and in our neighborhood,” the Iranian Mehr News Agency reported.
He added, "The measures to be undertaken by the Islamic Republic of Iran and the response of the international community to the U.S. leaving the JCPOA will be very unfavorable for the Americans.”
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was signed in 2015 between Tehran and six world powers, including the U.S., under then-president Barack Obama.
Trump, however, has termed the agreement the "worst deal ever” and has called on the other signatories to "fix it.”
He has threatened to tear up the agreement unless new restrictions are imposed on Iran’s ballistic missile program and other military activities by May 12.
Zarif accused Trump of shirking U.S. commitments, indicating that the Europeans had failed to pressure the White House to honor the agreements.
"If the European countries want to preserve the deal, they have to make it sustainable for Iran,” he was quoted as saying. "They need to impose pressure on the United States in order to compel the U.S., encourage the U.S. to implement what it undertook under the deal. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been doing that.”
Zarif said that in all events, Tehran would make no "concessions,” and that any suggestion to renegotiate the deal would "not get a positive answer” from the Islamic Republic.