Germany, which currently chairs the European Union, estimated Friday, December 4 that a simple return to the existing agreement on Iranian nuclear power would no longer suffice and that it should be extended in particular to the ballistic programs of Tehran.
Read also: Touched to the heart, Iran weighs its response after the assassination of a nuclear program official
"
A return to the current agreement will not be enough
", declared the head of German diplomacy Heiko Maas to the weekly Der Spiegel, with the prospect of a possible relaunch of this file after the entry into office of Democrat Joe Biden as President of the United States.
"
It's going to take some kind of nuclear deal more, which is also in our best interests,
" Maas said.
Joe Biden confirmed on Wednesday that he was in favor of returning his country to the agreement if the Iranian authorities returned to "
strict compliance
" with the limits imposed on their nuclear program, before negotiations on other threats posed by Tehran.
"
We have clear expectations with regard to Iran: no nuclear weapons but also no ballistic missile program that threatens the whole region
", stressed for his part Mr. Maas, while Germany holds the six-month presidency of the EU until the end of the month.
“
In addition Iran must play another role in the region.
We need this agreement precisely because we do not trust Iran,
”said Mr. Maas, assuring that he had agreed on these points with his French and British counterparts.
"
Here is what @HeikoMaas and (Berlin, London and Paris) must do before talking about what Iran should do,
" Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reacted on Twitter: "
Honor your obligations (.. .) and stop violating
”the Vienna agreement concluded in 2015 between the great powers and the Islamic Republic.
"
Difficult, but yes
"
"
End YOUR malicious behavior in OUR region: arms sales of 100 (billion dollars to Arab monarchies in the) Persian Gulf and blind support for Israeli terrorism
."
Read also: Iran: Biden wants to join nuclear deal before any new negotiations
Current US President Donald Trump, who will leave the White House in January, slammed the door in 2018 on the deal reached by the United States, China, Russia, Germany, France and the United Kingdom with Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, deeming it insufficient to stem the “
destabilizing
”
behavior
of the Islamic Republic.
In the process, the Republican President reinstated and then tightened the American sanctions lifted in 2015, to the chagrin of Washington's European allies who say they want to save the agreement but whom Tehran accuses of having done nothing to help it bypass the US sanctions.
Joe Biden confirmed his plan to return to the deal on Wednesday.
“
It will be difficult, but yes,
” he told a New York Times columnist.
Biden, however, demands that Iran return first to full respect for the Vienna agreement while Tehran, which has started to break away from several of its key commitments from 2019 in response to the American withdrawal , demands that Washington take the first step in lifting its sanctions.
Only after Washington and Tehran return to the core of the deal, "
in consultation with our allies and partners, will we enter into negotiations and follow-up agreements to toughen and extend nuclear restrictions on Iran and to address the
Iranian
missile
program, explained Joe Biden.
