Macron reaffirms commitment to 2015 Iran n-deal

French President Emmanuel Macron has told visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the 2015 nuclear deal should be preserved or security in Tel Aviv and the region would be at risk.

"I reiterated to the prime minister my deep conviction which is shared by our European partners that the 2015 agreement should be preserved to control nuclear activity," Macron told reporters on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"But it had never been considered by France as sufficient or fully satisfactory," he said, noting that "the 2015 nuclear accord is a step which needs to be completed with other post-2025 activities."

Macron called on his partners and allies to "focus efforts (to promote) regional stability by maintaining the nuclear agreement that had allowed the monitoring of Iran's activities."

Officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program.

US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the deal struck by his predecessor Barack Obama's administration, claiming it did not address Iran's ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 or its role in conflicts in Yemen and Syria.

Tehran has threatened that, in case other parties to the nuclear deal could not safeguard Iran's interests under the accord, Iran will move out of it and resume its nuclear activities at full speed.

Warning of the risk of rising tensions due to the Iranian nuclear stand-off, the French president called on "everyone to stabilize the situation and not give into this escalation which would lead to only one thing: conflict."

The Israeli Prime Minister, who strongly opposes the nuclear accord, said: "It's time to apply measures on Iran so that it cannot go forward," because "the great threat for the world today is nuclear weapons in the hands of radical Islamic regime like Iran."

--IANS

pgh/