Iran rejects Macron’s call for talks beyond nuclear deal

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi has dismissed the comments made by the French president in a meeting with his US counterpart, saying such remarks will not at all help save the Iran nuclear deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron had said a day earlier that Paris and Washington both wanted to stop Tehran getting nuclear arms and new talks should focus on curbing its ballistic missiles programme and on other issues.

“Despite [making] some remarks and [issuing] political statements, the European parties have failed so far to fulfil their commitments under the JCPOA and their obligations following the US’ illegal withdrawal from the agreement,” Mousavi said.

The Europeans, he added, have failed to prepare the grounds for Iran to fully benefit from the multilateral agreement.

“Under the current circumstances, their move to raise issues beyond the JCPOA will not only fail to help save the JCPOA, but will also pave the way for further distrust among the parties remaining in the 2015 agreement,” the spokesman said.

The United States pulled out of the 2015 agreement - under which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief- saying it was not permanent and did not do enough to control Iran’s missiles and regional influence.

Trump also asserted on Thursday that sanctions imposed by the US after pulling out of the agreement have crippled Iran’s economy and left the nation in tatters.

“They’re doing very poorly as a nation,” he said. “They’re failing as a nation. And I don’t want them to fail as a nation. We can turn that around very quickly, but the sanctions have been extraordinary how powerful they’ve been, and other things. I understand they want to talk and if they want to talk that’s fine.”

Mousavi dismissed Trump’s comments as “repetitive, groundless and paradoxical” and said they did not merit a response.