Emmanuel Macron Hopes Iran Nuclear Deal Will Be ‘Concluded’ Soon
French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran will be revived in the coming days.
“I hope that in the next few days the JCPOA will be concluded,” Macron said Thursday during his annual speech to ambassadors at the presidential palace in Paris, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal’s official name.
Macron has previously said the ball was in Iran’s court, and cautioned that a new nuclear deal wouldn’t solve the issue of Iran’s ballistic missiles.
An agreement on how to revive the landmark accord is “not out of reach” if the text contains stronger protections for Iran, the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Wednesday. He said stronger guarantees needed to be written into the deal in the event a future US administration again withdraws.
French diplomats have privately worried that reviving the deal would be unlikely as US midterm elections approach and the issue becomes increasingly sensitive.
