WASHINGTON — President Trump is coming under mounting pressure from European allies and fellow Republicans to preserve the Iran nuclear deal. With the president widely expected to disavow the agreement when he outlines his Iran strategy on Friday, defenders and even erstwhile opponents of the deal are urging him not to unravel it completely.
Mr. Trump’s top national security aides are united behind a plan to decertify the deal, but leave it in place, with a goal of revising its terms. But in pursuing that course, the president will set off a volatile sequence of events that some warn could end up mortally wounding the agreement.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers will have to decide whether to reimpose punitive sanctions on Tehran, a move that would almost certainly scuttle the 2015 deal that was brokered by world powers. In European capitals, allies are showing signs of resisting pressure to join the United States in trying to renegotiate its terms.
“While the Trump administration is making a very fine distinction between a decertification that is a report to Congress rather than leaving the deal, I’m concerned that that distinction will be lost on our allies and adversaries,” said Senator Chris Coons, a senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee.
Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain called Mr. Trump on Tuesday to urge him to uphold the deal, adding that it should be “carefully monitored and properly enforced,” according to a spokesman for 10 Downing Street. The British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, reinforced that message in a call to Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson.
