Iran rejects French mediation for renewed nuclear deal dialogue with US

After French President Emanuel Macron, last week, offered to mediate between the US and Iran as an ‘honest broker’ for nuclear deal negotiations, Iran on Monday rejected the proposal, appearing reluctant about external intervention. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman on February 7 told state reporters that the Islamic Republic would “not need a mediator”, snubbing France’s mediation attempts as a go-between for Tehran and Washington. Macron, earlier on Feb.5, told Atlantic Council think-tank that he can broker talks between Iran and Biden administration in order to revive the 2015 nuclear accord. Iran’s Saeed Khatibzadeh, however, dismissed such a call in his recent comments to the press, saying Iran wasn’t ready for mediation, without mentioning France. 

“I will do whatever I can to support any initiative from the US side to re-engage in a demanding dialogue, and I will try to be an honest broker and a committed broker in this dialogue,” Macron told Atlantic Council. Furthermore, calling Saudi Arabia and Israel as key partners in the region, the French President suggested that these nations must also be involved as they would directly be interested in the outcomes of the US-Iran dialogue. 

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In 2018, the former US President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iranian nuclear deal framework, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that his predecessor Barack Obama had agreed with Iran to lift sanctions in exchange for Tehran easing its nuclear activities. Trump reimposed a trade embargo and hit Iran with sanctions, additionally labelling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, and commanding the drone strike against Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani near Baghdad International Airport. The US, under the Trump administration, exercised a “maximum pressure” strategy against Tehran for the regime’s hostage-taking and funding terror groups, as well as nuclear and ballistic missile programs.  

“The people of Iran, though their heroic resistance against the imposed economic war, proved that the U.S. maximum pressure policy was doomed to fail,” Rouhani said, in an AP report. He added Iran “considers constructive engagement with the world as a strategy.”

Return to 'path of complying'

With Joe Biden, elected as the President of the US, Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani called on the new administration to “compensate for past mistakes” and return the US to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal, in a highest-level response from Iran recorded ever. “Now, an opportunity has come up for the next U.S. administration to compensate for past mistakes and return to the path of complying with international agreements through respect of international norms,” AP cited state-run IRNA news agency quoting Iran’s Rouhani. Meanwhile, in favour of new negotiations, France’s Macron offered to be a “broker”, however unclear, whether Washington accepted French President’s mediation ahead of a US National Security Council meeting on Iran’s Nuclear deal scheduled for Friday. 

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