By Hanif Ghaffari

Le Pen slams Macron over JCPOA

May 20, 2018 - 11:6

Although the President of the French National Front, “Marine Le Pen” has seriously slammed French President Emmanuel Macron for his approach towards the nuclear deal, the criticism has been censored in French media! In other words, only a few French news sources has reflected Le Pen’s words, while others simply ignored them.

Criticizing Trump's decision to walk out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), France's Far-right leader stressed that this decision is “putting French citizens at risk and is depriving the French economy of very lucrative markets”. She then described Trump’s decision in this regard as dangerous.

“Similar to the harsh sanctions in 2012 against Iran, the U.S. has an entire arsenal of means to prevent [foreign companies] from maintaining any trade relations with Tehran. Such diktat is impermissible and can’t be tolerated.” Le Pen noted.

The fact is that a number of French companies, including Total, Renault, and Sanofi, are based in Iran and could, according to the new sanctions, be affected by the U.S. measures.

 “By withdrawing from the 5 + 1 agreement, the United States, once again, broke their promise… for a second time in less than a month.” Le pen said.
 She also mentioned that Emmanuel Macron bears his share of responsibility for the “illusions” he had about his ability to talk Trump out of withdrawing from the nuclear deal with Tehran.

“I resolutely condemn the position of Donald Trump and also that of the French diplomacy which, in its attempts to be even more neo-Conservative than (U.S. national security adviser] John Bolton, has found itself without U.S. patronage and no alternative way to go, … He [Macron] finally refused to go to Tehran to defend the national interests [of France] and to listen to the position of the regime. He was only interested in the American-Israeli-Saudi axis.” Le Pen said in a statement released on Friday.

Marine Le Pen's remarks in criticizing the misguided policies of the French President on the JCPOA are totally in line with current realities in French foreign policy equations. Last summer, Emanuel Macron has been committed to Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu to include Iran's missile capabilities and permanent nuclear restrictions against our country in the nuclear deal context. Beyond that, he promised to do his best in order to limit Iran’s regional activities through a second agreement!

Such hideous promises indicate that Macron doesn’t have the slightest and minimum intelligence in foreign diplomacy. Accepting Trump's demands on the JCPOA, Macron had practically humiliated the French diplomacy system, and reduced it to an "impotent broker" of U.S. policies.

 It should be noted that the same trend existed in France foreign policy before, during the presidency of Sarkozy and Hollande. France has faced countless illusions in its foreign policy after the departure of Jacques Chirac of the Elysee Palace and the presence of new leaders; something we can well see the results in Paris's decisions on the JCPOA and the country’s policies in Syria.

In her criticism of Macron, Le Pen has pointed out a very important subject that shouldn’t be easily overtaken: That the French president (over last year) hasn’t basically listened to the positions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and has only become a desperate player on Trump’s ground. Under such circumstances, Macron’s words on saving the JCPOA is more like a joke.

“France needs real world politics and rid itself of the neo-Conservative ideology, which has led to such destructive consequences [in the Middle and Near East] and finally to start defending the interests of France,” Le Pen emphasized.

According to Le Pen, cooperation with Iran, Russia and Syria against terrorism is of crucial importance in preventing new terrorist attacks on French soil. She said: “Secondly, we should establish the post of a defense commissioner [in relations with Iran] and thirdly, we need to work out and implement a mechanism of bank payments that would help us resist the US diktat and protect bilateral exchanges [with Iran],".

With no doubt, the French President is to blame in this equation, and he is way behind being a "defender" of the JCPOA! Currently the leaders of Britain, France and Germany have urged all the signatories to the JCPOA to stick to its provisions. This is while the role of people like Emmanuel Macron, “Theresa May” and “Angela Merkel” in breaking the nuclear deal with Iran is no less than the U.S. and Trump! "Standing against Trump’s illusions" was the least responsibility of the European troika, but France, Britain and Germany refused to fulfil it. On the contrary, those like Immanuel Macron did their best in feeding the illusions of the incapable and controversial President of the United States, the illusions that today have stuck European countries, including Britain, Germany and France.