France: Economic Package for JCPOA Unlikely before November

Speaking to RTL radio before travelling to Vienna for a ministerial meeting on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Friday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the remaining parties to the Iran nuclear deal were working to come up with a financial mechanism to mitigate planned tough US sanctions against Iran.

"We are trying to do it before sanctions are imposed at the start of August and then another set of sanctions in November. For the start August it seems a bit short, but we are trying to do it by November," he said.

Le Drian also noted, "They (Iran) must stop permanently threatening to break their commitments to the nuclear deal."

"They must stop the threats so that we can find the solutions so that Iran can have the necessary economic compensations," the top French diplomat added.

His comments came after president of Iran confirmed that the country has received a long-awaited European proposal for saving the Iran nuclear deal, but complained that the ‘disappointing’ package does not meet Tehran’s demands and still needs to provide a clear practical plan with definite time frame.

On May 8, the US president pulled his country out of the JCPOA, which was achieved in 2015 after years of negotiations among Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

Following the US exit, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has underlined that any decision to keep the JCPOA running without the US should be conditional on “practical guarantees” from the Europeans.