French President Emmanuel Macron today (Thursday) accused Iran of continuing to violate the nuclear agreement signed in 2015 with the world powers. Macron said that Iran must act responsibly and stop the violations at this stage.
“Iran must stop aggravating the nuclear situation, in which it has repeatedly violated the agreement,” the French president said during a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. Macron added that his country would continue to act to end the current crisis. He argued that ending the crisis would mean returning to overseeing and controlling Iran’s nuclear program, alongside gaining control of Iran’s ballistic missile operations.
Emanuel Macron and President Rivlin (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom / GPO)Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi is also visiting France these days and said during his visit that “from a security point of view, Lebanon has been taken prisoner by Hezbollah. It has lost control of its security policy. Hezbollah holds thousands of missiles and rockets that are located in the heart of a civilian population and are deliberately designed to harm Israeli citizens. “The IDF will do everything to prevent this.”
Kochavi added: “The IDF has thousands of targets in Lebanon that are growing every week and have extensive capabilities to destroy them. We will not hesitate to attack forcefully on the day of command, wherever we find ammunition, an enemy or state infrastructure that aids the enemy. The Lebanese government is responsible for changing the situation, and it and the State of Lebanon will bear full responsibility for any Hezbollah action against the citizens of the State of Israel. “
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France, along with Britain, Germany and the European Union, are currently working to bring the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table, even if at this stage it is only informal. So far, neither Iran nor the United States seems willing to compromise, with Iran’s New Year’s this week, coupled with the June presidential election, likely to make efforts even more difficult.
Earlier this month, talks on the nuclear deal between Washington and Tehran reached a dead end. Iran has continued to adhere to the position that the United States should first lift the sanctions it has imposed, while the White House has expressed disappointment with statements in Tehran and said “the US is still ready to exercise significant diplomacy on the issue”.