France and US clash with Iran over changing nuclear accord
The leaders of the United States and France call for a new deal curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme, but Iranian President Hassan Rouhani swiftly rejected their demands and the EU insisted the current agreement must stay.
The appeal from two of the signatories to the landmark 2015 accord came as French President Emmanuel Macron was on a state visit, received with much pomp by US President Donald Trump.
Trump Tuesday laid transatlantic divisions bare, pillorying a three-year old agreement designed to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
The US leader described it as “insane” and “ridiculous,” despite European pleas for him not to walk away.
Instead, Trump eyed a broader “deal” that would also limit Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for militant groups across the Middle East.
Macron said the agreement should impose tougher terms on Iran including a settlement in Syria, where it backs President Bashar al-Assad.
Macron was to address a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday, with more freedom to speak his mind on world issues after his talks with Trump.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday questioned the legitimacy of these demands for a fresh nuclear agreement with Tehran.
“Together with a leader of a European country they say: ‘We want to decide on an agreement reached by seven parties’. What for? With what right?” Rouhani said in a speech.
EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini insisted Wednesday that the current Iran nuclear deal was working and “needs to be preserved”.
“On what can happen in the future we’ll see in the future, but there is one deal existing, it’s working, it needs to be preserved,” the former Italian foreign minister said as she arrived for a donor conference on Syria in Brussels.
In Moscow, the Kremlin said there can be ‘no alternative’ to the current deal with Iran.
“We believe that no alternative exists so far,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that Iran’s position on the subject was paramount.
Trump said earlier that “they should have made a deal that covered Yemen, that covered Syria. No matter where you go in the Middle East, you see the fingerprints of Iran behind problems.”
Macron said after meeting Trump that he did not know whether the US president would walk away from the nuclear deal when a May 12 decision deadline comes up.
Putting on a brave face, he said he wished “for now to work on a new deal with Iran” of which the nuclear accord could be one part.
WASHINGTON: