Boris Johnson appears on Donald Trump's favourite TV show in bid to persuade president to back Iran deal
Boris Johnson has appeared on Donald Trump’s favourite TV show in an effort to save the Iran nuclear deal.
As well as appearing on Fox & Friends, the Foreign Secretary also spoke on MSNBC's Morning Joe where he set out his arguments for the deal which he said was "very far from perfect, but it is the best thing that we have at the moment".
He went on to highlight the positives of the deal, adding that the signatories should work together on the existing pact, rather than abandon it.
The president tweeted that he would announce his decision on the Iran deal at the White House by 2pm, Tuesday, local time.
On Fox & Friends Mr Johnson urged the US President not to "throw the baby out with the bathwater, not junk the deal, because plan b does not seem to me to be particularly well-developed at this stage".
Mr Johnson later commented in another TV interview that the president should get the Nobel Peace Prize "if he can fix North Korea".
He added: "I don't see why he's any less of a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize than Barack Obama who got it before he even did anything."
The US President has fiercely criticised the Iran agreement, which eased crippling economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for commitments to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) is a pact brokered by Britain, the US, China, Russia, Germany and France, and signed with Iran.
On Sunday, Iran's president warned President Trump that pulling America out of the nuclear deal with world powers would be a "historic regret."
It is not immediately clear what Mr Trump will announce or whether he will announce the end of the deal or push for a renegotiation.
In October, President Trump sparked alarm after announcing he would not re-certify the deal to Congress because the regime is not living up to the "spirit" of it and has committed "multiple violations" of the agreement.
Previously Trump has criticised the deal as "one of the worst and one of the most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into", adding that it gave Iran "an immediate financial boost and over $100 billion [£74 billion] its government could use to fund terrorism".
If on May 12, the 71-year-old decides to pull out of the deal, he would effectively torpedo the international alliance behind the pact.
Furious Iran hits back at Israeli claims it secretly worked to develop a nuclear bomb
Trump threatens Iran of 'bigger problems' if nuclear programme restarted
Speaking on Morning Joe, the Foreign Secretary said that President Trump had "set the world a challenge to address the bad stuff that Iran is doing in the region".
He continued that the deal was needed to stop Iran from developing Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, and that without it, the Middle Eastern country would "go very rapidly for a nuclear weapon".
Mr Johnson told the programme that the deal was working and had resulted in Iran reducing its "enriched uranium by 95% and cut its centrifuges by two-thirds", two things which had been confirmed by "400 inspections".
The 53-year-old went on to say that there are "weaknesses in the deal", but that these issues could be resolved.
During his stint on Fox & Friends morning news show, which Mr Trump is know to avidly watch – frequently tweeting about items which appear on it - Mr Johnson made sure to praise the President, but urged him to work with the other signatories of the deal to "fix its flaws", rather than scrap it altogether.
On Sunday, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said that "if [the US] opts to pull out of the nuclear deal, it will soon realise that this decision will become a historic regret for them".Mr Rouhani also assured Iranians that "no change will occur in our lives next week" regardless of President Trump's decision.
Iran has faced economic trouble in recent weeks, with some analysts blaming the uncertainty surrounding the accord.
The European Union has said the deal "is working and it needs to be preserved".
Also during his time in Washington, Mr Johnson will hold two days of talks with senior administration officials including Vice President Mike Pence, as well as national security adviser John Bolton and key foreign policy leaders in Congress.
The meetings are expected to cover North Korea - ahead of President Trump's planned meeting with Kim Jong-un - and the situation in Syria.
Ahead of his trip to Washington, Mr Johnson said: "On so many of the world's foreign policy challenges the UK and US are in lockstep.
"We've seen this recently with the response to the poisonings in Salisbury, our strong response to Assad's use of chemical weapons in Syria, and the effort to denuclearise North Korea.
"The UK, US and European partners are also united in our effort to tackle the kind of Iranian behaviour that makes the Middle East region less secure - its cyber activities, its support for groups like Hezbollah, and its dangerous missile programme, which is arming Houthi militias in Yemen."