ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday told his Iraniancounterpart Hassan Rouhani that he found the US decision to withdraw from a2015 nuclear deal with Iran to be wrong, a source in Erdogan´s office said.

In a phone call, Erdogan also told Rouhani that Turkey wanted the deal tobe maintained, after US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced thatthe United States would pull out from the deal.

US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the United States waswithdrawing from what he called a “defective” multinational nuclear dealwith Iran, adding that Washington would, however, reinstate sanctionsagainst the Islamic republic.

“The Iran deal is defective at its core,” Trump said in a televised addressfrom the White House. “I am announcing today that the United States willwithdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.”

He called Tehran the world’s leading state sponsor of terror and decriedits influence in the Middle East.

The US president claimed to have proof that Iran had lied about the dealadding that his country had failed to hold Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“Iran nuclear deal doesn’t constrain Iran’s destabilising activities,including support for terrorism,” he said. “The deal has inadequatemechanisms to prevent cheating.”