Iran nuclear deal too weak

French President Emmanuel Macron claims to be the “Trump whisperer” but he is doing the US President no favours by insisting there is no plan B if Washington decides to scuttle Barack Obama’s deeply flawed Iran nuclear deal. There is an alternative that could improve the deal substantially. Mr Macron, the first foreign leader accorded a full state visit with pomp and ceremony in Donald Trump’s White House, should acknowledge that the arguments of Iran’s warmongering ayatollahs are specious.

By May 12, Mr Trump is required to recertify the Iran deal or to refuse, a step that would trigger the reimposition of sanctions, with potentially vast strategic consequences. Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has warned that Tehran will resume and accelerate its “nuclear activities”. The stakes are high and rising. But Mr Macron and other co-signatories to the deal — Britain, Germany, China and Russia — are being shortsighted in not recognising that Mr Trump is right to demand that “the worst deal ever made” be fixed.

In defiance of UN resolutions, Iran’s brazen, ongoing testing of long-range missiles that could be used to deliver a nuclear bomb leaves no doubt Mr Obama’s deal was inadequate. So does Iran’s belligerence in Syria, its pursuit of Shia hegemony across the Middle East and its unceasing threats to annihilate Israel. While rewarding Iran with billions of dollars, the deal denies International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors automatic access to military sites. Yet it allows research on nuclear warheads. As Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, when the deal ends in 2030 “Iran will be able to expand uranium enrichment and produce a hundred bombs in a short time”.

As it stands, the agreement is untenable. Instead of claiming there is “no plan B”, and thereby supporting Iran, Mr Macron, the European leader closest to Mr Trump, should be mustering support for it to be renegotiated. But as John Bolton said before he became Mr Trump’s national security adviser, there must be doubt that even “putting lipstick” on the existing deal will fix it.