TEHRAN – French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has ruled out any changes to the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, saying that the agreement “must not be touched”.

“Today they (Iranians) are complying with it; they must carry on complying with it. I think I heard commitments from President Rouhani in this respect. He is very committed to the agreement, which he regarded as a historic agreement. It is important for the sake of the world’s security for it to be maintained,” Tasnim quoted Le Drian as saying, citing the official website of French embassy in London.

“It must not be touched, it must be enforced, and that’s what we’ll be saying elsewhere too, it’s what President Macron will tell President Trump, it’s a dividing line between us…,” he added.

On March 5, the chief French diplomat paid an official visit to Tehran and held talks with senior Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

“In the meetings I had in Iran, there were points of disagreement, points of friction, where I set out France’s position very clearly and where I questioned the Iranian authorities about their intentions, particularly in the ballistics field. The ballistics field means missiles, and there’s a kind of capability-building frenzy on Iran’s part to acquire more and more missiles,” Le Drian stated.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said that the country will not accept any changes to the nuclear deal and that there will be no talks on Iran’s missile capability. 

MH/PA