France and China support restoration of talks to salvage JCPOA

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and French President Emmanuel Macron attend a tea ceremony at the Guandong province governor's residence in Guangzhou on April 7, 2023.

The statement announced that the nuclear agreement between Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany was an important achievement in the field of multilateral diplomacy.

This statement also added that France and China were determined to find a diplomatic and political solution to solve Iran’s nuclear issue.

According to the joint statement, Beijing and Paris adhere to the non-proliferation regime without undermining the UN Security Council resolutions.

Iran has cautioned the United States that the window of opportunity for an agreement on reviving the nuclear deal will not remain open forever, urging Washington to adopt a constructive approach to salvage the accord.

Iran showed to the world the peaceful nature of its nuclear program by signing the JCPOA with six world states — namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China. But, Washington’s unilateral withdrawal in May 2018 and its subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the deal in limbo.

Negotiations between the parties to the landmark agreement kicked off in Vienna in April 2021, with the intention of bringing the US back into the deal and putting an end to its “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.

The discussions, however, have been at a standstill since August 2022 due to Washington’s insistence on not lifting all of the anti-Iran sanctions and offering the necessary guarantees that it will not exit the agreement again.