France’s Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian on Saturday warned Iran aimed to acquire nuclear weapons and blamed President Donald Trump for allowing it to happen.
“The Trump administration chose what it called the maximum pressure campaign on Iran. The result was that this strategy only increased the risk and the threat,” Le Drian told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.
“This has to stop because Iran and – I say this clearly – is in the process of acquiring nuclear [weapons] capacity,” he said.
Le Drian added it was of utmost urgency to “tell the Iranians that this is enough” and to bring both Iran and the United States back into the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, from which the Trump administration withdrew in 2018.
“Tough discussions will be needed over ballistic proliferation and Iran’s destabilization of its neighbors in the region,” Le Drian said.
His remarks came after Iran last week announced that it was resuming enriching uranium to 20 percent, in violation of the accords and a move Israel has warned
proves the Islamic Republic is seeking nuclear weapons.
The Islamic Republic also said it has
started work on uranium fuel for a research reactor in the capital of Tehran, another breach of the deal.
The moves are part of a wide-reaching campaign to avenge the November killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the mastermind behind the country’s nuclear weapons program, which Tehran blamed on Israel as well as in response to sanction imposed by the U.S.
According to a New York Times report, Israel was also behind the killing of al-Qaeda’s second-in-command.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Iran had become al-Qaeda’s new headquarters, and that the two are now “partners in terrorism.”
Britain, France and Germany on Saturday warned Tehran has “no credible civilian use” for the uranium.
“The production of uranium metal has potentially grave military implications,” said the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany in a joint statement.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 news, the Biden administration has already unrolled its plan to return to the nuclear deal and has begun holding quiet talks with Iran.
A separate report by the Israel Hayom daily said Israel, wary of Biden’s promise to return to the deal, is crafting military options to “undermine Iran’s nuclear efforts or, if need be, counter Iranian aggression, which will soon be presented to the government.”
The paper also quoted Defense Minister Benny Gantz as saying: “Israel needs to have a military option on the table.”
Israel on occasion threatened to act militarily to prevent Iran from acquiring the bomb during the Obama administration, which spearheaded the deal.
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