Macron comes up with proposal for new deal on Iran; will Trump be convinced?

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, April 24, pledged with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to seek even stronger policies to contain Iran through the former did not commit to continuing with the Barack Obama-era nuclear deal and threatened the Asian country with retaliation if it resumed its nuclear programme.

Iran, too, has sounded a warning to the US saying there would be "expected and unexpected" reactions from its soil if the US quit the nuclear deal of 2015. Recently, it also warned of walking out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty if the US went ahead to scrap the deal.

Bush, during a news conference with Macron who is currently on a state visit to the US and joined the Trumps over a state dinner on Tuesday with his wife Brigitte, slammed the nuclear accord between Iran and the world powers saying it did little to address Iran's rising clout in the Middle East or contain the country's ballistic missile programme, Reuters said. The Republican also called it insane, terrible and ridiculous, it added.

The Iran problem is gaining prominence with the approaching of May 12, the deadline for Trump to decide whether to restore Washington's economic sanctions on Tehran.

The French president said he discussed with Trump about a fresh deal in which America and Europe would handle the outstanding concerns about Iran beyond its N-programme, Reuters reported.

The European powers are in favour of continuing with the deal as they think it is the best hope to prevent Iran from going berserk with the nuclear programme and leading to a nuclear arms race in West Asia. Macron's current US visit also has to salvage the deal with Iran as one of its main goals but convincing Trump is a lot difficult work than it sounds.

As per Macron's proposal, the US and Europe would reach a consensus on blocking Iran's nuclear activity till 2025 and beyond and address Tehran's ballistic missile programme and create conditions for a political solution to check Iran in countries like Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon, Reuters added.

Trump on Tuesday was caught flicking a piece of dandruff from the shoulder of Macron, saying it was to make Marcon perfect and ensure that the special relationship between the US and France continued.

Was it removing dandruff or Trump's mockery of any deal with Iran?