The French government will use meetings at the UN this week to try to persuade Donald Trump not to abandon the nuclear agreement with Iran, warning that the deal’s collapse would trigger a “spiral of proliferation” in the Middle East, the French foreign minister said, reports The Guardian.
Jean-Yves Le Drian said that Iran was abiding by the terms of the 2015 deal, and that verification measures were being “strictly implemented” by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
President Trump, however, has claimed that Tehran has violated the deal, at least “in spirit” and has threatened he would not certify Iranian compliance when the state department is required to report on its implementation on 15 October.
Le Drian argued the deal was vital to global security.
“It’s essential to maintain it to prevent a spiral of proliferation that would encourage hardliners in Iran to pursue nuclear weapons,” the minister told journalists in New York on the sidelines of this week’s UN general assembly.
Trump is due to make his maiden UN speech at the opening of the general assembly on Tuesday, but he took part in his first UN meeting and made his first remarks on Monday at a side meeting about reform of the organisation. He praised the secretary general, Antonio Guterres, describing him as “fantastic”.
“I applaud the secretary general for laying out a vision for reforming the United Nations so it better serves the people we all represent,” Trump said. He extolled the noble goals of the organisation, but warned that in recent years the United Nations had not reached its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement.
“We are not seeing results in line with the investment but I know that under the secretary general, that’s changing and it’s changing fast,” the president said.