UN, EU, Russia back Iran nuclear deal as Trump meets Macron
GENEVA/MOSCOW: US allies and rivals spoke out in support of the Iran nuclear deal on Monday, bolstering French President Emmanuel Macron’s pitch to US President Donald Trump that there was no “Plan B” for keeping a lid on Tehran’s atomic ambitions.
Macron is on something of a rescue mission for the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Trump has vowed to scrap unless European allies strengthen it by mid-may.
A nuclear non-proliferation conference in Geneva heard repeated calls for parties to the deal — the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — to ensure its implementation and preservation.
“The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action continues to be the best way to ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme and to realise the promised tangible economic benefits for the Iranian people,” UN High representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said.
But US non-proliferation envoy Christopher Ford said Iran presented a very real long-term challenge to the non-proliferation regime. “Iran suspended its weaponisation work only when confronted by the potentially direst of consequences without ever coming clean about its illicit endeavours,” he said.
“For several more years (it) continued its efforts to enrich uranium in violation of legallybinding UN Security Council requirements, and retains the ability to position itself, several years hence, dangerously close to rapid weaponisation.”
On a visit to Beijing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart to block any US attempt to sabotage the deal.