US allies and rivals yesterday spoke out in support of the Iran nuclear deal, bolstering French President Emmanuel Macron’s pitch to US President Donald Trump that there was no “Plan B” for keeping a lid on Tehran’s atomic ambitions.
Macron is on something of a rescue mission for the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which Trump has vowed to scrap unless European allies strengthen it by the middle of next month.
A nuclear non-proliferation conference in Geneva, Switzerland, heard repeated calls for parties to the deal — the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — to ensure its implementation and preservation.
“The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action continues to be the best way to ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program and to realize the promised tangible economic benefits for the Iranian people,” UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said.
However, US envoy Robert Ford said Iran presented a very real long-term challenge to the non-proliferation regime.
“Iran [is] a country that for years illegally and secretly sought to develop nuclear weapons, suspended its weaponization work only when confronted by the potentially direst of consequences without ever coming clean about its illicit endeavors,” he said.
On a visit to Beijing, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said that he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart to block any US attempt to sabotage the deal.
“We are against revising these agreements, we consider it very counterproductive to try to reduce to zero years of international work carried out via talks between the six major powers and Iran,” Lavrov said after talks with Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi (王毅).
EU Special Envoy for Non-proliferation and Disarmament Jacek Bylica said the deal strengthened the international non-proliferation regime, contributed to regional and international security and ensured the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.
Cornel Seruta, a senior official at the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the deal had significantly improved access to Iran.
Trump was scheduled yesterday to welcome Macron to the White House at the start of a three-day state visit, his first hosting of a state visit since he took office in January last year.
They were to attend an evening meal at Mount Vernon, the home of the US’ first president, George Washington, the Revolutionary War commander whose alliance with France was critical to victory over the British.
The major work between the pair is scheduled for today during White House meetings, before Macron addresses a joint session of the US Congress tomorrow.
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