TEHRAN – French President Emmanuel Macron has praised the U.S. decision to engage with Iran and said Saudi Arabia and Israel must ultimately be involved in the negotiation with Iran, according to Reuters.

Speaking with the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank in a video conference from Paris, Macron noted, “We do need to finalize, indeed, a new negotiation with Iran.”

“I will do whatever I can to support any initiative from the U.S. side to reengage a ... dialogue and I will be here ... I was here, and available two years ago and one and a half (years) ago, to try to be an honest broker and a committed broker in this dialogue,” he added.

Iran has already objected to the inclusion of Saudi Arabia to the JCPOA let alone Israel which Iran does not recognize and that it opposes a nuclear weapons free zone in West Asia.

In remarks on Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani said there will be no changes to the content of the JCPOA and that no other country will be added to it.
Rouhani emphasized, “The undue words should not be said. We did a job resulted from hard work. It took more than ten years to gain the achievements (JCPOA). In the beginning of the eleventh government, we made efforts during the first two years” to reach the multilateral agreement. 
In 2018, former U.S. President Donald Trump quitted the JCPOA, which was designed to restrict Iran’s peaceful program in return for the lifting of U.S. and other sanctions. His successor, President Joe Biden, has said that if Iran returns to “strict” compliance with the deal, the U.S. will too.

The Trump administration restored the U.S. sanctions that Obama removed in 2015. Trump and his secretary of state Mike Pompeo perused a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran with the aim of strangulating the Iranian economy. 

In 2019, French president sought to bring Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table and to provide opportunity for wider future talks. 

Macron claimed it was time for a new negotiation because Iran was closer to a nuclear weapon.  He also said the international community has to deal with Iran’s missile program.

EE/PA