he Iran nuclear deal may have more time than you think.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are both visiting Washington this week in part to persuade President Donald Trump not to withdraw from the agreement next month.
Most discussions about the deal have focused on May 12 as a make-or-break deadline when Trump must decide whether to continue suspending economic sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the July 2015 deal but come up for periodic review. As the date has crept closer, Iranian officials as well as Trump have ramped up their rhetoric, with Iran threatening to restart its nuclear activity if Trump scuttles the deal and Trump warning Iran on Tuesday that it will face “big problems” if it takes that path.
But some experts say the deal can survive even if Trump sits back and allows the sanctions that must be reviewed by May 12 to take effect once more. The potentially more important deadline, they say, arrives around July 11, when Trump must decide whether to reimpose a substantially larger batch of sanctions.