Iran Snubs Macron’s Offer to Mediate Washington-Tehran Nuclear Talks

Tehran has rejected French President Emmanuel Macron’s offer to be an honest broker in talks between Iran and the US. The rejection follows demands by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for the European Union to mediate between Washington and Tehran.

“The nuclear deal has no need for a mediator,” foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters without specifically mentioning France, but in response to a question about recent comments by the country’s president.

Khatibzadeh also insisted that there was no need to renegotiate the nuclear deal.

“When a document is written with such precision and length it means that it is not necessary to discuss it again… It is all there in more than 150 pages,” he said of the deal officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The spokesman added that European states must themselves return to their commitments under the nuclear deal with Iran.

On Feb 1, FM Zarif asked the European Union to coordinate a synchronized return of both Washington and Tehran into a nuclear deal, after a diplomatic standoff on who will act first.

Zarif’s request came a few hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Iran could now produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon within “a few months.”

Macron offered Thursday to be an “honest broker” in talks between the United States and Iran in order to revive a 2015 nuclear deal which was torpedoed by ex-president Donald Trump.

“I will do whatever I can to support any initiative from the US side to re-engage in a demanding dialogue, and I will… try to be an honest broker and a committed broker in this dialogue,” Macron told the Atlantic Council think-tank.

The French leader had tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to persuade Trump to stay in the 2015 pact.

Some believe that Macron’s offer to mediate between Washington and Tehran comes to erase his earlier failure.

But Zarif has specifically asked for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to play the mediatory role between Washington and Tehran due to his position as coordinator of the 2015 agreement.