The head of Iranian diplomacy said Thursday, on the eve of a meeting with the French president, "points of agreement" with Emmanuel Macron, who seeks to save the Iranian nuclear deal weakened by the US withdrawal .
"President Macron has contacted President (Iranian) Hassan Rohani with various proposals and President Rohani has asked me to meet President Macron to see if we can finalize some of these proposals to allow everyone to fulfill of its obligations under JCPOA (the nuclear deal), "said Mohammad Javad Zarif. "This is an opportunity to review President Macron's proposal and to present President Rohani's point of view, and see if we can find common ground." We already have points of agreement. he added.
A text to save
A signatory to Iran's nuclear deal reached in 2015, France has been leading European efforts to salvage the text since the unilateral withdrawal of US President Donald Trump in May 2018, followed by the reinstatement of draconian sanctions against Tehran.
Concluded between Iran and the 5 + 1 group (United States, China, Russia, United Kingdom, France and Germany), the agreement had allowed the lifting of part of the sanctions in exchange for the Iranian commitment of do not acquire nuclear weapons. In response to US withdrawal and the inability of Europeans to help it get around the sanctions, Tehran stopped in July from meeting some of its commitments under the deal. Iran has threatened to extricate itself from further obligations if the states parties to the agreement still fail to help it bypass the sanctions, notably to sell its oil.