France says military confrontation seems inevitable if no new Iran nuclear deal

PARIS, France (Reuters) — France’s foreign minister warned on Wednesday that if world powers were unable to quickly reach a new agreement with Iran over its contested nuclear program, then a military confrontation seemed “almost inevitable.”

Speaking after French President Emmanuel Macron convened a rare and undisclosed meeting of key ministers and experts on Wednesday to discuss the Iran dossier, Jean-Noel Barrot appeared to ramp up the pressure on Tehran.

European powers are seeking to create a diplomatic path with a view to getting an agreement to curb Iran’s uranium enrichment activity by the summer and ahead of an October 2025 deadline, when UN sanctions related to a 2015 accord on Iran’s nuclear program with world powers expire.

Western powers say the nuclear program amounts to a disguised effort to develop an atomic bomb. Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons.

“The window of opportunity is narrow. We only have a few months until the expiration of this (2015) accord. In case of failure, a military confrontation would seem to be almost inevitable,” Barrot told a parliamentary hearing.

The earlier cabinet meeting, confirmed by three diplomatic sources, is rare and highlights mounting concern among Washington’s European allies that the United States and Israel could launch airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, unless there is a quick negotiated deal on its nuclear program.

Iran is sworn to Israel’s destruction, finances and directs terror groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, and launched two large-scale missile and drone attacks at Israel over the past year in support of its proxies.

This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows four B-2 stealth bombers parked at Camp Thunder Cove in Diego Garcia on March 29, 2025, as a US airstrike campaign continues against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

The US has reinforced military capabilities in the Middle East with more warplanes, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, during a US bombing campaign against the Houthis who control much of Yemen and are supported by Iran.

A senior European official said European strategists were asking themselves whether the campaign could be a precursor to a US strike on Iran in the coming months.

Trump, who has urged Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to engage immediately in negotiations, threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if it did not come to an agreement over its nuclear program.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will be in Paris on Thursday.

Diplomatic sources said ministers from France, Britain, and Germany, all party to the 2015 deal, were hoping to discuss the Iran dossier with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio when they convene in Brussels for a NATO ministerial meeting this week.

Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 deal that placed strict limits on Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Centrifuges line a hall at the Uranium Enrichment Facility in Natanz, Iran, in a still image from a video aired by the Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting company on April 17, 2021, six days after the hall was damaged in a mysterious attack. (IRIB via AP)

Since then, Iran has far surpassed that deal’s limits on uranium enrichment, producing stocks at a high level of fissile purity, well above what Western powers say is justifiable for a civilian energy program and close to that required for nuclear warheads.

The European powers have sought to raise pressure on Iran to coax it back into nuclear discussions. They have held several rounds of talks with Iran including at a technical level last week, to try to lay the groundwork.

But the Trump administration has focused initially on a campaign of “maximum pressure,” and the Europeans have found coordination complicated, diplomats say.

The European powers, who can invoke a return of full UN sanctions before October, had hoped to convince Iran to begin negotiating new restrictions on its nuclear activities, with a view to having a deal by August at the latest.

That would give enough time to set new limits for Iran’s program and begin lifting sanctions before the 2015 accord expires in October 2025.

Meanwhile, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht Ravanchi on Wednesday discussed the ongoing negotiations with Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabkov, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The sides addressed joint steps to stabilize the situation and “reduce the tensions artificially and unreasonably inflamed by Western countries,” the ministry said.

The ministry said that using military force against Iran and threatening to strike its nuclear infrastructure would be “illegal and unacceptable” as they would cause “large-scale and irreversible radiological and humanitarian consequences” for the Middle East and the world.

Earlier this year, the Kremlin offered to mediate between the United States and Iran, with which Moscow signed a strategic partnership treaty in January.

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.