Stop abiding by illegal US sanctions: Iran's Zarif tells France's Le Drian

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif holds a telephone call with his French counterpart, urging Paris to live up to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and world powers, including by stopping its adherence to the illegal US sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

"I called on France to honor its commitments under the accord, and to cease abiding by illegal sanctions imposed by the US," Zarif tweeted on Saturday, commenting on the contents of his earlier conversation with Jean-Yves Le Drian.

In a telephone call with French FM @JY_LeDrian today I urged France to show a constructive stance on the JCPOA in next week’s meeting in Vienna.

I called on France to honor its commitments under the accord, and to cease abiding by illegal sanctions imposed by the US.

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) April 3, 2021

The agreement officially known as the JCPOA or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action came by between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries -- the United States, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany -- in Vienna in July 2015.

The US left the deal under its former president Donald Trump in 2018 and returned the economic sanctions that the agreement had lifted. Its European allies in the deal, including France, bowed under Washington's pressure by toeing the sanction line and stopping their trade with Tehran.

The Islamic Republic returned the Western allies' non-commitment with a set of phased-out nuclear countermeasures, including by resuming uranium enrichment at 20-percent purity level. Iran's measures fits well within the JCPOA's Paragraph 36 that entitles it to the reprisal.

During the call, Zarif also addressed the issue of an upcoming meeting of the JCPOA's Joint Commission that gathers representatives of all the signatories, except for the US.

The Austrian capital is slated to host the meeting next Tuesday. It is expected to feature "in-person" talks among the attendants.

The Iranian top diplomat also said in his tweet he had "urged France to show a constructive stance on the JCPOA in next week’s meeting in Vienna."

Various Western media outlets, including The New York Times, have alleged that Iran and the US would be "exchanging ideas" during the meeting "through intermediaries."

The Islamic Republic has, however, unequivocally rejected the idea of holding any direct or indirect negotiation with the United States as far as the latter keeps the sanctions in place.

Tweeting earlier, Zarif underlined again that the Vienna gathering would feature "no Iran-US meeting," calling such a meeting "unnecessary."

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