TEHRAN – French President Emmanuel Macron has said he would speak to his Iranian, Russian and American counterparts this week as part of a French initiative to reduce tensions between Tehran and Washington.

“The momentum we built over the last few weeks has, I think, prevented the worst from happening and overreactions on the Iranian side,” Macron told a joint press conference with his Serbian counterpart, Reuters reported.

“In these difficult conditions, we will continue our mediation and negotiation work,” he added.

President Hassan Rouhani announced on May 8 the suspension of some of the country’s commitments under the JCPOA, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, precisely a year after the United States unilaterally withdrew from the deal.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of France, Britain, and Germany held a meeting in Brussels on Monday to discuss the latest developments around the JCPOA. European Union foreign policy Chief Federica Mogherini was also present at the session.

Mogherini said the signatories to the nuclear deal do not view Tehran’s move to scale back some of its commitments under the agreement as significant noncompliance and have not indicated any intent to trigger the accord’s dispute mechanism.

The JCPOA was originally struck between Iran and six world powers — namely the U.S., the UK, France, Russia, China plus Germany. Washington, however, unilaterally withdrew in May 2018, in a hostile move against the Islamic Republic.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington entered a new stage since April when the U.S. designated the IRGC (part of the Iranian military) as a terrorist organization, announced that it does no renew waivers for the remaining buyers of the Iranian oil, and started beefing up its military presence in the region, particularly in the Persian Gulf.

The tensions further escalated on June 20, when the Iranian military shot down an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone after it breached Iran’s airspace. The U.S. drone entered the Iranian airspace from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In comments made a few hours after the incident, IRGC Chief Major General Hossein Salami said the shooting down of the U.S. drone had a straightforward message that any foreign intrusion into Iranian territories would draw a crushing response.

MH/PA