Macron warned 'no renegotiating' possible for nuclear deal as Iran ramps up 'animosity'

Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani warned France’s Emmanuel Macron in a phone call on Tuesday that Tehran was not interested in re-opening negotiations over the 2015 nuclear deal. Mr Rouhani told the French President the only way to restore the agreement with Iran was for the United States to formally rejoin the pact which was broken when Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.

Correspondent Simone Fox told Bloomberg: “We are getting a little more animosity or seemingly animosity between Iran and France.

“The question is is it between Iran and Europe, when you looked at readouts from this call that these two leaders had yesterday.

“You saw Iran take this very staunchest stance but also say that Europe, it sees a role for Europe to be more active in the coming weeks.

“At the same time, you saw the French President’s office say that Macron is deeply concerned about Iran’s stance and call for clear and immediate gestures to signal a willingness to return to a deal.”

She continued: “I think we have to talk about the importance of European powers the UK, France and Germany in trying to orchestrate this return to diplomacy between the United States and Iran.

“We are all paying a lot of attention to an IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors meeting which is taking place in Vienna right now.

“There is some thought that the EU three may pass a resolution censoring Iran for some of its latest moves to restricts inspections of its nuclear sites.

“Tehran would be very resistant to that and that might doom potential talks, a potential return to that 2015 nuclear deal in the near term.”

Ms Fox added: “So we are very much watching the influence that these European powers are having on a potential return to the 2015 nuclear deal.”

In the past few years, tensions between the US and Iran have escalated, with the nations having had no formal diplomatic relations since April 1980.

Since 1995, the United States has had an embargo on trade with Iran and during Donald Trump’s term as president, relations between the two nations worsened with war almost breaking out during the 2019/2020 Persian Gulf crisis.

Under the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the US and other world powers agreed to lift crippling economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for limits on the country’s nuclear program.

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Former US leader Mr Trump pulled the country out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed those sanctions.

The worsening of relations between the US and Iran could have global economic, political and security implications.

If military conflict were to break out, Iran could try to block the Strait of Hormuz, a region responsible for the passage of 30 percent of the world’s oil.

This would have a resultant impact on global oil prices.

source: express.co.uk