Iran’s foreign minister said Sunday he was hopeful of forging a “clear future design” for the nuclear deal facing collapse after Washington’s withdrawal, at the start of a diplomatic tour aimed at rescuing the agreement.
“We hope that with this visit to China and other countries we will be able to construct a clear future design for the comprehensive agreement,” Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters after talks in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
Zarif will later fly to Moscow and Brussels to consult the remaining signatories to the 2015 agreement denounced by US President Donald Trump.
Washington’s decision to withdraw from the deal and reimpose sanctions angered its European allies as well as China and Russia.
But on Sunday US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington was keen to hammer out a new agreement with its European partners to counter Tehran’s “malign behavior.”
China was one of the six powers — with the United States, Russia, France, the UK and Germany—that signed the historic pact, which saw sanctions lifted in return for the commitment by Tehran not to acquire nuclear weapons.