Iranian officials have rejected French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s request for curbing its missile program after a day of tense discussions in Tehran on Monday aimed at salvaging the historic nuclear deal.
Le Drian said there was “still a lot of work to do” on Iran’s missile program after meeting with top officials, including President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Zarif countered that Europe needed to “play a more constructive role to preserve” the nuclear deal, France24 TV Network said.
“And above all to put pressure on the United States to meet its commitments under the deal and not to allow it to present illogical and illegal demands,” Zarif added, according to an account by the foreign ministry.
The visit came in the midst of a scramble by European governments to salvage the 2015 deal after US President Donald Trump threatened he would abandon it unless tough new restrictions were placed on Iran before May 12.
Rouhani issued a statement after meeting Le Drian, saying, “Preserving the nuclear accord will prove to the world that negotiation and diplomacy are the best option for solving problems, while its collapse will signify that political negotiations are a waste of time.”
Le Drian has insisted he is not “an emissary of Trump”, but he has taken a firm line on Iran’s missile program and regional interventions that mirrors the rhetoric from Washington.
“There are programs for missiles with ranges of several thousand kilometers which are not in line with UN Security Council resolutions and go beyond what is needed to secure Iran’s borders,” Le Drian told Le Journal du Dimanche on the eve of his visit.
For his part, Iranian government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said that Iran’s actions in connection with defensive power is not pending on the call of the Zionist regime and the European Union and there is no topic for discussion on the table.
Source: IRNA
