Tillerson: US may miss Iran nuclear deal deadline

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday said the U.S. may not be able fix the flaws in the Iran nuclear agreement in time to meet a White House deadline, a remark that comes shortly before talks on Iran with three European countries get underway next week.

When Trump waived sanctions against Iran earlier this month — a requirement under the Obama-era 2015 nuclear deal — he emphasized that he would not sign off on another wave of U.S. sanctions relief in May unless Europe agrees to help restrict Iranian missile testing and development as well as conduct inspections.

"The U.S. is under a bit of a timetable to deliver on what the President is looking for, but we don’t — we can’t set timetables for others," Tillerson told reporters accompanying him on a flight from London to Paris.

The secretary said he plans to address the matter by hosting for a working dinner Germany, France and Italy, countries the U.S. has had previous informal talks with about the deal, as well as the European Union.

"So this is just a continuation of the exchange of views on how we can address these flaws in the nuclear agreement, what kind of mechanisms could we use, but also how can we cooperate more on countering Iran’s activities that are not related to the nuclear program," he said, pointing to the U.S. concerns about Iran's "arms exports to Yemen and elsewhere."

"So we’re formalizing — I think maybe what we’re doing is we’re formalizing these groups to put a little bit more of structure around our working together to see what we can do together," he added.