Nations can meet President Donald Trump's challenge to be more tough on Iran without throwing out the international deal that has kept them from producing a nuclear weapon, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson insisted Monday.
"I understand that people have anxieties about this deal and they're right in the sense that it's very far from perfect, but it's the best thing that we have at the moment," Johnson, who has traveled to the United States to make his country's plea to remain in the agreement, told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Trump addressed the "bad stuff" Iran is doing in the Middle East and called to fix the "biggest weakness in the deal, that it doesn't go beyond 2025," said Johnson. "Then, there's the real prospect of Iran being able to go very rapidly for a nuclear weapon without sanctions going on."
But Johnson said he still thinks Trump's challenge can be met without "throwing away the heart of that Iran nuclear deal," and he said it must be asked how nations can dissuade Iran from building nuclear weapons without the agreement.
"What's happened over the last few years is that we've had, I think, 400 inspections of Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency," said Johnson. "They've been able to verify that Iran has reduced its enriched uranium by 95 percent, it's cut its centrifuges by two-thirds."
This did not happen because of the basis of trust, but because of verification and inspection, he added.
"What we want to do now is to work with other European countries, work with the United States, as I say, to find a way of being tougher on Iran but to protract the good bits of that deal," said Johnson.
He admitted that Trump is "right to see defects" in the deal.
"In 2025, there's a sunset clause that means the Iranians can start going, if they want, for all of enriched uranium which could involve a warhead and we need to prepare for that," said Johnson.
"We need to think now about how we're going to build scaffolding, a superstructure around this deal to stop that happening and that I think is what he is thinking about and that's where we and other European countries want to help."
Johnson also discussed what is happening in England following its Brexit vote, and denied show co-host Joe Scarborough's contention that there is "great frustration" over the matter.
"We are coming out of the European Union, we are taking back control of our borders, our laws, our money," he said. "We want to be a great free trading nation again. We want to do our own thing and run our own economic policy, have our own legislative program."
Johnson said he added that the United States would "never accept" how the EU is trying to create a federal organization out of 28 countries.
"We're talking now about the way the United States acts in the world and you see some very, very strong and original decisions by the president," Johnson added. "This stuff he's doing in North Korea, it's fascinating the way he's playing that. He is taking a very tough line on Iran. We in the UK, we want to be strong, independent actors again."
Meanwhile, England does not want to turn its back on Europe, but to build "very strong trading relations with them," said Johnson.
"We want to continue to work with them on security and defense, all the stuff I've been talking about with the Iran nuclear deal. We're saying to Donald Trump yes, you have a good point, yes, we need to be tougher on Iran and here's how we do it so we think we can do both things at once. "