PARIS — French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says that several issues were still hindering a French-led bid to save a landmark 2015 accord limiting Iran’s nuclear program.
“There is still lots to work out, it’s still very fragile,” Le Drian tells journalists in Paris regarding the talks between Tehran and three European countries — France, Britain and Germany — to keep the nuclear deal alive after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the accord last year.
Trump later re-imposed harsh sanctions that have pummeled the Iranian economy, hoping a strategy of “maximum pressure” would force Tehran to accept a stricter accord to curtail its nuclear ambitions.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, right, and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, shake hands for journalists at the start of their meeting in Tehran, Iran, on March 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
“The president [Emmanuel Macron] sensed that President Trump was open to softening the strategy of maximum pressure, to find a path that could allow a deal to be reached,” Le Drian says.
He says talks were now focused on a possible guaranteed credit line for Tehran in exchange for oil, in exchange for Iran promising to adhere to the terms of the 2015 deal.
Tehran would also have to commit to easing geopolitical tensions in the Gulf region, and participate in Middle East talks on improving regional security, Le Drian says.
“That all supposes of course that President Trump allows waivers on some points” of the new US sanctions on Iran, he adds.
— AFP
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