Sigmar Gabriel: Germany is ready to increase pressure on Iran

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Chancellor Angela Merkel attend the weekly cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, September 27, 2017. REUTERS

BERLIN (Reuters) -Oct. 9, 2017-  Germany is worried that U.S. President Donald Trump will say the international deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program is not being adhered to and that this will turn North Korea off any accord to halt its nuclear weapons program, the foreign minister said.

Sigmar Gabriel told reporters in Berlin on Monday that Germany was ready to increase pressure on Iran, with diplomatic means, but that “we do not want to see this agreement damaged.”

He added: “Our big concern is with, regard to North Korea, that it is very unlikely the North Korean dictatorship is ready to agree to an international agreement to renounce the building of nuclear weapons if the only agreement in the world that has allowed such a renunciation is at the same time called into question.”