Market Desk (New York): Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and his delegation have held meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and other top leaders in New York as a deadlock over 2015 nuclear deal remains in place.
Raisi, accompanied by Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani also sat down on Tuesday with European Council President Charles Michel and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and his deputy Enrique Mora, who act as coordinator of nuclear talks that began in April 2021.
Bagheri and Mora then held separate talks that are thought to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as the nuclear deal that US unilaterally abandoned in 2018.
Raisi also said, “Europe must show in action that its policies are separate from those of the US and does not follow the wishes and policies of the US.”
Raisi also criticized the unilateral withdrawal of the US from the nuclear agreement. He said that the European countries could not ensure the implementation of the agreement with Iran at that time out of the influence of the US. Therefore, in order to prevent Washington from withdrawing from the nuclear agreement again the possible agreement should contain punitive measures for them. The guarantee that Iran wants in this regard is not unreasonable.
In the meeting, the French President made some proposals regarding the ongoing nuclear talks. He admitted that even after the IAEA confirmed that Iran was in full compliance with the nuclear deal, the US Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018. Europe also failed to implement it with the exception of the US.
