How the rest of the world is trying to save Iran nuclear deal from Trump’s attempts to sabotage it

Flurry of diplomatic activity began hours after US leader pulled his country out of the agreement

A concerted international attempt to save the Iran nuclear deal from Donald Trump’s attempts to sabotage it is under way with officials from France, Germany and Britain due to meet their Iranian counterparts from Tehran next week. At the same time Russia and China, the two other signatories to the agreement, are holding talks with Iran to strengthen trade and political relations against punitive American measures.

The flurry of diplomatic activity began hours after Mr Trump declared that the US will renege from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and impose new sanctions on Iran amid alarm that the move will undermine the global nuclear non-proliferation system.

There is said to be a widespread feeling among European governments that Mr Trump has chosen to ignore traditional Western allies in favour of Saudi-led Gulf States, which have pledged to buy billions of dollars worth of US arms, and the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing three police corruption investigations in his country. This, say ministers and officials, calls for a fundamental strategic rethink.

Emmanuel Macron telephoned the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to discuss the groundwork for talks and announced that the two countries will be holding bilateral discussions. The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who is due to meet his Tehran counterpart, Mohammed Zarif, said: “The American logic is an isolationist, protectionist and unilateral logic. This is a break with international commitment and France deeply regrets this decision. We will bring businesses together in the coming days to try and preserve them as much as possible from the US measures: this deal is not dead.”

The move came as foreign secretary Boris Johnson said Britain will not "walk away" from the Iran nuclear deal following the dramatic withdrawal of the US from the agreement.

He said the government continued to believe the agreement was "vital" to UK national security and had done its "utmost" to persuade Mr Trump not to abandon it, adding it was up to the US to spell out the way forward and he urged the administration not to take any action which would hinder the efforts of the other parties to make it work.

"For as long as Iran abides by the agreement ... Then Britain will remain a party to the JCPOA. Britain has no intention of walking away," he said. "Instead we will co-operate with the other parties to ensure that while Iran continues to restrict its nuclear programme, then its people will benefit from sanctions relief in accordance with the central bargain of the deal."

Angela Merkel also expressed her “regret and concern” over Mr Trump’s actions and stressed that “Iran had stuck to its obligations under the agreement”. The German Chancellor continued: “We must not question the Iran deal, however we also need to talk about a broader deal that goes beyond that”. In Britain Theresa May reiterated that the agreement was “an important step forward in helping to keep the world safe”, acknowledging that she had failed to convince Mr Trump of this.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commission president, stated that Mr Trump has made it inevitable that Europe must assert its values. The US, he held, “no longer wants to co-operate with other parts of the world. At this point, we have to replace the United States, which as an international actor has lost vigour, and because of it, in the long term, influence.”

The EU is planning to ask for exemptions for its companies and financial institutions from American sanctions, although that is unlikely to happen. The French Foreign Minister, Bruno La Maire, the matter should not be allowed to rest there. “The international reach of US sanctions makes the US the economic policeman of the planet, that is not acceptable.”

China, which is involved in a $1.5bn deal for infrastructure building in Iran, has reaffirmed that its CITIC bank is extending $10bn lines of credit to Iranian banks, it will be using Euros and the Yuan rather than dollars to bypass US sanctions.