Iran lawmakers burn US flag in parliament
Iranian MPs burning a US flag in the parliament in Tehran on May 9, 2018. AFP PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Former US president Barack Obama whose administration inked the deal made a rare public criticism of his successor.
Iranian lawmakers burned an American flag and cried "Death to America" in parliament on Wednesday to protest President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the multi-party nuclear deal.
Images shown on various Iranian media showed an MP brandishing the paper flag and burning it in the centre of the parliament chamber.
A conservative lawmaker, Mojtaba Zolnour, joined him and burned a copy of the nuclear agreement.
Several dozen deputies joined them in shouting "Death to America", a favoured slogan of Iranian conservatives.
"Be careful not to burn down the parliament," speaker Ali Larijani said from the podium.
Iranian officials have condemned Trump's decision to pull out of the 2015 deal, which had lifted sanctions in exchange for curbs to Iran's nuclear programme.
Meanwhile, European powers scrambled Wednesday to save a landmark deal curbing Iran's nuclear programme after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
Trump sparked an international outcry by ditching the accord, a move that risks overturning years of diplomacy and adding to instability in the Middle East.
Trump poured scorn on the "disastrous" 2015 accord in an address to the nation from the White House on Tuesday.
He described it as an "embarrassment" to the US that does nothing to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions.
In response, the foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany will meet with Iranian representatives next Monday "to consider the entire situation," France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio.
French President Emmanuel Macron will also speak with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani by telephone on Wednesday afternoon about "our wish to stay in the agreement," Le Drian said.
He added that European powers would "try to preserve" the economic benefits Iran has gained from the lifting of sanctions under the deal.
In separate comments, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said that it was "not acceptable" for the US to be the "economic policeman of the planet."
