Iran on Monday accused France of "destabilizing" the region by selling arms to its Gulf rivals, three days after Paris signed a multibillion-euro contract with the United Arab Emirates including the sale of 80 Rafale.

"France's role in the destabilization" of the region should not be ignored, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saïd Khatibzadeh told reporters. 

On Friday, on the first day of French President Emmanuel Macron's tour of the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates signed an agreement to acquire 80 Rafale fighter jets for 14 billion euros.

"We are waiting for France to be more responsible: the militarization of our region is unacceptable and the weapons they (the French) are selling are at the origin of the disturbances that we are seeing," the Iranian spokesman said.

The remarks come at a time when the Emirati national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, is in Tehran to meet with Iranian officials.

>> To see: Emmanuel Macron in the Gulf: "France aims to present itself as a balancing power"

"We are witnessing the sale of tens of billions of dollars of weapons to the Arab Gulf countries while there are frequent meetings around our missiles," lamented Saïd Khatibzadeh.

Last month, the United States and Europeans criticized Iran for "the use and transfer of ballistic missiles and drones" to allied militias.

The Iranian nuclear issue as a backdrop

Moreover, Saïd Khatibzadeh rejected France's request to "associate" the countries of the region to "advance" in the discussions around the Iranian nuclear issue.

"We cannot deal with the nuclear question without dealing with the regional question, and we cannot move forward without involving our friends in the region", declared the French head of state.

"France is well aware that these assertions have neither legal nor rational basis," retorted Saïd Khatibzadeh.

After a five-month hiatus, negotiations to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal resumed on November 29 between Iran and countries still party to the pact, but have been on hiatus again since Friday.

The deal, which offered Tehran the lifting of part of the sanctions targeting it in exchange for a drastic reduction in its nuclear program, has been dead since the United States unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018.

With AFP 

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