French President Calls for Respecting JCPOA
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – France’s President Emmanuel Macron described the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as “not sufficient” but said it is good to respect it.
“The (nuclear deal) was a very important negotiation,” he said Wednesday, speaking in a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney.
“We negotiated it. We signed it. It’s good to respect it and that for me is a good beginning,” he added.
Macron, who met US President Donald Trump in Washington last week to try to convince him to not walk away, admitted he still did not know what decision Trump would take on the JCPOA.
“I just want to say whatever the decision will be, we will have to prepare such a broader negotiation and a broader deal, because I think nobody wants a war in the region, and nobody wants an escalation in terms of tension in the region.”
He also called for three “pillars” to be included in the deal, namely Iran’s post-2025 nuclear activities, its conventional missile program and its regional role.
Macron’s latest comments came two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a fresh propaganda campaign against the Iran deal. He went live on TV and unveiled, during an elaborate presentation, what he called “evidence” that Iran had a “secret” nuclear program.
The French president made no comments on Netanyahu’s anti-Iran show, but his Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday in support of the JCPOA.
According to the statement, the data purportedly provided by Israel further strengthened the need to ensure that the Iran nuclear deal and UN inspections remained in place.
On Tuesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rejected Netanyahu’s claims, saying the agency “had no credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device after 2009.”
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) reached the 159-page nuclear agreement in July 2015 and started to implement it in January 2016.
Ever since the deal took effect, the IAEA has confirmed Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA in all quarterly reports, but some other parties, especially the US, have failed to live up to their undertakings.
Trump in January set a 120-day deadline for US lawmakers and European allies to “fix” his predecessor Barack Obama’s main foreign policy achievement or face a US exit.
