“Given that Europe didn’t use Iran’s one-year opportunity while Tehran was unilaterally fulfilling its obligations, our country’s firm decision is to implement its commitments to the same extent that the other parties do. Time for unilateral fulfillment is over,” Supreme National Security Council Secretary General Ali Shamkhani told Emmanuel Bonne, senior diplomatic aide to French president Emmanuel Macron.
“Iran’s step-by-step reduction of nuclear commitments is an unchangeable strategy and that it will continue within articles 26 and 36 of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) until Iran’s demands are fully met,” he added in Tehran on Wednesday.
Emmanuel Bonne arrived in Iran on Wednesday in a bid to hold talks with senior Iranian authorities in a bid to save the nuclear deal.
“Iran has proven in practice that has the capacity to manage various tensions and challenges in economic, political and defensive aspects and that it’s not possible to talk to such a country with language of force,” noted Shamkhani, who is also representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
The top Iranian official warned Europe that “its independence has been kidnapped by the US”, calling on the European nations to stand up against the US to defend their identity and independence.
Iran announced on Sunday the second phase of scaling down its nuclear commitments in response to the EU’s lack of action to continue its trade ties with Iran in the wake of US unilateral extraterritorial sanctions.
Bonne is in Iran after French President Emmanuel Macron held a telephone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani a week ago, discussing ways to salvage the nuclear agreement.
The French diplomat visited Iran on June 19 as well.
“I’m not here as a mediator and don’t carry any message from the US for Iran,” Bonne told Shamkhani.
He mentioned that Iran’s influence and position in regional and international developments has leveled up during past 20 years despite 40 years of the pressures and sanctions.
Bonne stressed that Macron is seeking new initiatives for a ceasefire in the US “economic war” against Iran and believes that it will lower the growing tensions in the region.
The French official emphasized that Paris is interested in continued talks and cooperation with Iran to manage the crisis in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon given Iran’s irrefutable influence in the region.
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