Paris, Oct 4: France’s foreign minister on Thursday offered one month to both the United States and Iran to roll back to negotiating table to strike a deal, warning Tehran’s breaching UN resolutions by reducing its obligations under the landmark 2015 international Iranian nuclear accord would ignite new tensions in the Middle East.
“We consider that these initiatives, which didn’t succeed, are still on the table and it is up to Iran and the United States to seize (them) in a relatively short amount of time because Iran has announced new measures to reduce its commitments to the Vienna accord in November,” French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told parliament’s foreign affairs panel.
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron made efforts to mediate dialogues between Washington and Tehran, but however failed, on the sidelines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) summit in New York.
He said the next reduction move by Iran would be at the starting of November – what diplomats fear would force European powers to pursue retaliatory actions against the Islamic Republic, according to Reuters news reports.
“These measures risk leading to a new period of tension and new escalation so we must take advantage of the political space that exists to move forward,” said Drian, adding, “There are parameters on the table today that we think we can move forward on them and France’s diplomacy is working on it.”