Iran Sees France as Potential Major Actor in JCPOA Talks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Baqeri, the country’s top negotiator in the Vienna talks on the revival of the JCPOA, said France could play the role of a major actor in the nuclear negotiations in case Paris adopts a “more independent stance”.
"If France demonstrates a more independent stance from now on, it will strengthen its position as a negotiator state," Baqeri said in an interview with Le Figaro, published on Wednesday, TASS reported.
"Although the approaches of Russia or China are closer to our stance, from the moment of my today’s meeting I assume that France wants to play a more serious role in those negotiations," he said, commenting on the November 9 meeting with Philippe Errera, the Director-General for Political Affairs and Security at the French Foreign Ministry.
The US re-introduced the sanctions against Iran in 2018 after leaving the JCPOA, a historic nuclear agreement that had lifted the inhumane economic bans in return for some voluntary restrictions on Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program.
Following a year of strategic patience, Iran resorted to its legal rights stipulated in Article 26 of the JCPOA, which grants a party the right to suspend its contractual commitments in case of non-compliance by other signatories and let go of some of the restrictions imposed on its nuclear energy program.
Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA have held six rounds of talks in Vienna, which began after the US administration of Joe Biden voiced a willingness to rejoin the nuclear agreement, to examine the prospect of the bans’ fresh removal.
