France tells Iran to 'stop the threats' as nuclear deal talks go on
Responding to Iranian ultimatums that Tehran will walk away from the deal if economic demands are not met by world powers scrambling to save accord by mitigating looming US sanctions, France urges Iran to moderate its rhetoric ‘so we can find solutions.'
France warned Tehran on Friday to stop threatening to break its commitments to the nuclear deal as signatories scramble to salvage the accord after US President Donald Trump announced his country's withdrawal in May.
France also said it was unlikely European powers would be able to put together an economic package for Iran to save the deal before November.
"They must stop permanently threatening to break their commitments to the nuclear deal," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio before travelling to Vienna for a ministerial meeting on the agreement.
"They must stop the threats so that we can find the solutions so that Iran can have the necessary economic compensations."
He said the European powers but also Russia and China were working on coming up with a financial mechanism to mitigate planned tough US sanctions.
"We are trying to do it before sanctions are imposed at the start of August and then another set of sanctions in November. For the start August it seems a bit short, but we are trying to do it by November," he said.
A senior Iranian official said that world powers should fully compensate Iran for US sanctions to persuade Tehran to remain in the nuclear deal.
"We are ready for all possible scenarios ... the collapse of the deal will increase the tension in the region ... To save the deal, other signatories should compensate for US sanctions," the official said on Friday.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday that a European offer of economic measures to counter the effects of the United States abandoning the nuclear deal does not go far enough, reported state news agency IRNA.
Rouhani told French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a phone call that the package "does not meet all our demands," reported the news agency on the eve of ministerial talks in Vienna.
The Iranian leader said he hoped the matter could be addressed at the meeting which comes two months after Trump walked away from the landmark 2015 agreement.
