French minister in Iran to reaffirm nuclear deal but set out concerns on missiles
TEHRAN: France’s foreign minister visited Iran on Monday on a delicate mission to reaffirm Europe’s support for a nuclear deal that opened Iran’s economy while echoing US concern about Tehran’s missile program and role in regional conflicts.
Jean-Yves Le Drian wants to save the 2015 nuclear accord, which US President Donald Trump has threatened to quit unless European allies help “fix” it by forcing Iran to change its behavior in other areas.
“We’re not going to be Donald Trump’s envoys or Iran’s defense lawyers,” said a French diplomatic source. “We have our own concerns and will talk to the different sensibilities of the Iranian system to get our point across.”
France says Iran must address concern over its ballistic missile tests or risk new sanctions. Iran’s missile program is not covered by the nuclear deal, and Tehran says it will not bow to pressure to halt it.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, runs the missile program.
“Our missile work is... in line with our defensive policy, which poses no threat to any country,” the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, told Le Drian, according to the Students News Agency ISNA.
To send a message to France, Iranian media said, Shamkhani appeared in military uniform in his meeting with Le Drian.
Earlier, the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted an Iranian armed forces spokesman as saying Iran’s missile program would “continue non-stop and foreign powers have no right to intervene on this issue.”
Hard-line Iranian media reacted angrily to Le Drian’s visit with headlines like “The Rude Guest” and “Weapons of mass seduction.” Fars news agency said a group of hard-liners gathered at Tehran’s International Mehrabad Airport and in front of Iran’s Foreign Ministry to protest at Le Drian’s visit.
The deal between France, Britain, Germany, Russia, China and the US gave Iran relief from economic sanctions in return for curbs on its disputed nuclear activity, allowing Tehran to talk trade with Europe for the first time in years.
But so far the deal, pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani’s headline achievement, has yet to bring the economic benefits many Iranians yearn for. That has slowed Rouhani’s efforts to engage with the West, an approach opposed by Khamenei’s allies in the clerical and security establishment.
France has been quick to restore trade ties. Planemaker Airbus, oil major Total and automobile manufacturers Peugeot and Renault have signed deals, all at risk if Trump walks out of the accord.
In an effort to keep him on board, French President Emmanuel Macron has criticized Iran’s missile program and raised the possibility of new sanctions. On the eve of Le Drian’s visit, Macron told Rouhani by phone that France expects Iran to make a “constructive contribution” to solving crises in the region.