New Delhi:
French President Emmanuel Macron in an attempt to calm tension in the region on Saturday said, he is trying to resume dialogue between Iran and Western partners by July 15. Macron’s office said in a statement that the French leader spoke for more than an hour Saturday with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani amid a standoff between Tehran and the US.
Macron expressed "strong concern about new weakening" of the 2015 accord aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. He said he would “explore between now and July 15 resumed dialogue among all parties.”
On Friday, UN’s nuclear watchdog said it will hold an emergency meeting on Iran’s nuclear programme next week. This came days after Tehran breached one of the limits set in a 2015 deal with world powers. "The meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s board of governors, which follows a US request, would be held "on 10 July at 14:30," an IAEA spokesman said.
Earlier, Donald Trump warned Iran that its threats could “come back to bite” after Tehran vowed to exceed the maximum uranium enrichment level allowed by a landmark 2015 nuclear accord. “Iran has just issued a New Warning. Rouhani says that they will Enrich Uranium to ‘any amount we want’ if there is no new Nuclear Deal,” Trump tweeted, referring to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.
“Be careful with the threats, Iran. They can come back to bite you like nobody has been bitten before!” Iran is acting on its May 8 threat to suspend parts of the agreement in response to Trump’s re imposition of crippling sanctions after withdrawing from it in May last year.
The US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran last year, imposing punishing sanctions, and relations have sharply deteriorated since.
Tehran, which has sought to pressure the remaining parties to save the deal, on May 8 announced it would no longer respect the limit set on its enriched uranium and heavy water stockpiles.
It also threatened to go further and abandon more nuclear commitments unless the remaining partners—Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia—helped it to circumvent sanctions, especially to sell its oil.
Washington has blamed Iran for a series of attacks on tanker ships and Tehran shot down an American surveillance drone last month, raising fears of an unintended slide toward conflict that both sides have said they want to avoid.
