Macron warns of risk of ‘conflict’ over Iran nuclear deal
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron warned of the risk of “conflict” in the standoff with Iran after Tehran announced plans to boost its uranium enrichment capacity as Europe scrambles to save a beleaguered nuclear deal.
At a press conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the French leader called on “everyone to stabilise the situation and not give into this escalation which would lead to only one thing: conflict.”
He said that the Iranian decision to expand its nuclear infrastructure did not constitute grounds for quitting a 2015 deal designed to stop Iran getting a nuclear bomb.
The deal hangs by a thread after the US withdrew last month — a move applauded by Iran's arch-foe Israel – but so far fellow signatories France, Britain, Germany, China, Russia and the EU, have stood firm.
In a rebuke of the US pullout Macron said that Iran's riposte “simply shows that when you decide to unilaterally end an accord it does not encourage the other party to respect it.”
Netanyahu, who has vigorously opposed the accord, said he had not attempted to convince Macron to abandon it.
“I did not ask President Macron to leave the deal. I think that economic realities are going to decide this matter,” he said, referring to the prospect of renewed US nuclear sanctions on Iran, and the repercussions for European countries that continue to do business in the Islamic republic.”
“What we focused on, and what I focused on, is how to stop Iranian aggression in the region,” he added.
He claimed Tehran was using the “cash bonanza” from sanctions relief to build up its forces in Syria and using the war-torn country as a platform for attacks on neighbouring Israel.
His meeting with Macron was the third between the pair in Paris in a year.
It came hours after Iran said it had notified the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would soon open a new centre for producing new centrifuges to increase its uranium enrichment capabilities.
Nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said the moves were allowed under the accord, and “do not mean the negotiations (with Europe) have failed”.
In a video posted on social media, Netanyahu reiterated his claims that the new enrichment capacity was aimed at producing nuclear weapons “to destroy the State of Israel”. — AFP