Borrell: Window for Revived Iran Nuclear Deal Narrowing

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell
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Borrell: Window for Revived Iran Nuclear Deal Narrowing

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell

The window for an agreement to bring Iran back into compliance with a nuclear deal along with the US is closing, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on Tuesday.

"If we want to conclude an agreement, decisions are needed now. This is still possible, but the political space to revive the JCPOA may narrow soon," he tweeted, according to AFP.

The JCPOA is the 2015 nuclear deal under which Iran committed to curbing its nuclear program in return for lifting of international sanctions.

Former US president Donald Trump severely weakened the pact when he pulled America out of it in 2018, prompting Iran to drop its own compliance.

Iran has now enriched uranium close to the level needed to build atomic weapons.

Efforts led by Borrell and his deputy Enrique Mora to get Iran and US back under the nuclear deal's terms have stalled, largely because of a late-running added demand by Tehran that Washington remove Iran's Revolutionary Guards from a terror blacklist.

Borrell in his tweet said he had again spoken with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, following up on talks he had during a surprise June 25 visit to Tehran.

Indirect negotiations between Iran and the US hosted by Qatar last week failed to produce a breakthrough.

The 2015 deal was strenuously negotiated by European powers France, Britain and Germany, along with Russia, China and the United States.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday he would "make every effort" to get Iran to revise its extra demands and take up the agreement worked out for a revival of the nuclear pact.



Mexico President Chides Trump: Mexican America ‘Sounds Nice’

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum shows a 1661 world map showing the Americas and the Gulf of Mexico in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's comments about renaming the body of water, during a press conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, in this photo distributed on January 8, 2025. (Presidencia de Mexico/Handout via Reuters)
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum shows a 1661 world map showing the Americas and the Gulf of Mexico in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's comments about renaming the body of water, during a press conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, in this photo distributed on January 8, 2025. (Presidencia de Mexico/Handout via Reuters)
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Mexico President Chides Trump: Mexican America ‘Sounds Nice’

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum shows a 1661 world map showing the Americas and the Gulf of Mexico in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's comments about renaming the body of water, during a press conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, in this photo distributed on January 8, 2025. (Presidencia de Mexico/Handout via Reuters)
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum shows a 1661 world map showing the Americas and the Gulf of Mexico in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's comments about renaming the body of water, during a press conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, in this photo distributed on January 8, 2025. (Presidencia de Mexico/Handout via Reuters)

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday suggested North America including the United States could be renamed "Mexican America" - an historic name used on an early map of the region - in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America."

"Mexican America, that sounds nice," Sheinbaum joked, pointing at the map from 1607 showing an early portrayal of North America.

The president, who has jousted with Trump in recent weeks, used her daily press conference to give a history lesson, flanked by old maps and former culture minister Jose Alfonso Suarez del Real.

"The fact is that Mexican America is recognized since the 17th century... as the name for the whole northern part of the (American) continent," Suarez del Real said, demonstrating the area on the map.

On the Gulf of Mexico, Suarez del Real said the name was internationally recognized and used as a maritime navigational reference going back hundreds of years.

Trump floated the renaming of the body of water which stretches from Florida to Mexico's Cancun in a Tuesday press conference in which he presented a broad expansionist agenda including the possibility of taking control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.

Sheinbaum also said it was not true that Mexico was "run by the cartels" as Trump said. "In Mexico, the people are in charge," she said, adding "we are addressing the security problem."

Despite the back and forth, Sheinbaum reiterated that she expected the two countries to have a positive relationship.

"I think there will be a good relationship," she said. "President Trump has his way of communicating."