President Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, sought to allay doubts that he might advocate for the US to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, saying he would continue to work with US allies in an effort to strengthen and "improve" the agreement.
CIA Director Pompeo, who was nominated to be the US's top diplomat by Trump last month, said during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he would continue the work of former Secretary Rex Tillerson and work with European allies to improve the deal with Tehran.
"I want to fix the deal. That's the goal," Pompeo told the Senate committee.
"If there is no chance of fixing the deal, I will recommend to the president that we do our best work together with our allies to achieve a better outcome and a better deal."
President Trump has set a deadline of May for the nuclear agreement with Tehran to be improved, otherwise he has threatened to withdraw from the agreement.
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Trump has said he will not sign off on a new wave of sanctions until what he calls the deal's "terrible flaws" are fixed.
But despite Trump's criticism that Tehran is violating the "spirit" of the deal by continuing to produce ballistic missiles, Pompeo has said he has "no evidence that they (Iran) are not adhering to the deal."
CIA Director Pompeo added that he does not believe Iran could quickly produce nuclear weapons if the deal is broken.
Tehran has recently threatened to resume its nuclear activities if Trump withdraws from the deal.
Pompeo said he would continue Tillerson's efforts to negotiate an additional agreement aimed at strengthening the nuclear deal with European allies (France, Britain and Germany), who were among the six world powers that signed the nuclear deal in 2015.
European negotiators, who are holding talks with US negotiator Biran Hook in Washington, have said they believe they are making progress towards an agreement that will address President Trump's concerns over the nuclear pact, Reuters reported.
Reuters quoted a European diplomat as saying that if "the US agrees to work with the Europeans to ensure that Iran's nuclear program is for civilian use only, we can agree on something."
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But the diplomat said European negotiators cannot agree to something that is explicitly prohibited in the 2015 agreement.
Trump has said he sees three flaws in the nuclear deal: the failure to stop Iran's development of ballistic missiles, restrictions on international inspectors from visiting nuclear sites, and a 10-year expiration date on Iran's uranium enrichment and other nuclear activities.
