Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he was “happy” that French President Emmanuel Macron was taking the lead in trying to hold the crumbling agreement together following Washington’s withdrawal.

In an interview with Euronews published on Saturday, Zarif said he held “a very good discussion” with Macron in Paris ahead of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Biarritz. "We discussed with Macron how the U.S. could come back, and how Europe and the international community can live up to their commitments, independent of the U.S."

“President Macron has been trying to do his best,” he said. “Our partners in Europe have to make a decision, not about Iran but about how they want to deal with the U.S. — whether they want to have independence or whether the U.S. can impose its will.”

The deal is “not an optional arrangement” but rather it is backed by a UN Security Council resolution, he added.

“If the U.S. were to impose its will on Europe to abide by international law it would be bad but it would be justifiable. Now the U.S. is imposing will on the rest of the world to violate international law. That’s totally unacceptable, and for Europe, whose future is based on multilateralism and the rule of law, this is a threat against the future of Europe.”

He said the nuclear deal was imperfect but was still the “best possible” solution.

“It wasn’t done overnight almost every word of it has gone through difficult negotiation so I know it’s not the best deal,” he said. “It’s not what I wanted, not what the U.S. wanted, not what France wanted … we all have our complaints but that’s what a multilateral agreement is all about, you can’t get everything you want.”

He said Iran’s recent escalations, such as the work on its uranium enrichment program, were reversible.

“If Europe — alone or with the U.S. — decided to fulfil their part of the obligation then we can easily within hours return to full implementation of the deal,” he said.

While Iran’s economy was hit hard by the reintroduction of U.S. sanctions, it has partially recovered, Zarif said.

“Our economy is stabilizing, we have gone through the worst period, our currency has recovered on third of its value, we are back in green territory with our growth,” he said.

“We suffered tremendously last year and the U.S. is responsible for huge damages on Iran — hundreds of billions of dollars which one day they will have to pay.”

At a time of heightened friction between Tehran and Washington, Iran on Thursday displayed a domestically-built, long-range, surface-to-air missile air defense system.

In a bid to de-escalate tensions, Macron on Wednesday proposed softening sanctions on Iran or providing a compensation mechanism in return for full compliance with the pact.

Zarif said on Thursday that Iran was prepared to work on French proposals to salvage the nuclear deal, but added that Tehran would not tolerate U.S. interference in the Persian Gulf.

SP/PA