French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who concluded an official visit to the Islamic Republic, said that contrary to reports, the Iranian authorities were “very determined to continue with the nuclear deal.” The French top diplomat, who held several meetings with Iranian officials, emphasized that while Paris seeks to preserve the international agreement that limited Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for crippling sanctions relief, “much work” remains over the Islamic Republic’s role in regional conflicts and its ballistic missile program that is perceived by Paris and other Western powers, as breaching “the spirit” of the nuclear agreement. “I heard the Iranian authorities say, in particular President Rouhani, that they were very determined to continue with the nuclear deal, and will do everything to ensure it is maintained,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
“There is still much work to do on this (Iran’s ballistic missile program), as much on the maintaining of the nuclear treaty, of the agreement made in Vienna (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), we are on board with this. And we demonstrated this by removing our sanctions, which allowed business relations between France and Iran to resume. Therefore, everything must be done for this historic deal to be upheld,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
The French diplomat asserted that “there are programs (in Iran) for missiles with rages of several thousand kilometers which are not in line with UN Security Council resolutions and go beyond what is needed to secure Iran’s borders.” The French Foreign Minister also urged Iran’s leadership to stop its destabilizing actions across the region. While Foreign Minister Le Drian emphasized that he is not “an emissary of Trump,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif criticized his French counterpart in a post on his twitter page, saying, the “EU should compel the U.S. to abide by the JCPOA (the technical term for the nuclear agreement) rather than trying to appease it by repeating its extraneous demands. To defend the nuclear agreement, mere words are not sufficient. Especially since the US is an obstacle to EU’s own adherence to the JCPOA.” Minister Zarif also responded to Le Drian’s demand to halt its military involvement across the Middle East, saying, the “US & Europeans should stop pouring hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons” into the region, “instead of questioning Iran’s missiles.”