Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron have agreed that the Iranian nuclear deal must endure in a phone call on Monday, with the French president later posting a video of him talking to his Russian counterpart on Twitter.
“I have been speaking to Vladimir Putin to once again assess the situation,” Macron told his followers, adding that Iran must be prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons for the sake of international security and stability in the Middle East. The tweet was accompanied by a short video of the French leader talking to Putin as he was heading to Australia aboard his presidential plane.
“Putin understands me,” the French leader said as he shared a drink with journalists after a lengthy interview with French BFMTV broadcaster earlier in April. According to the journalists, Macron also proclaimed himself “an equal to Putin” and revealed that he ordered French forces to join a US-led missile strike on Syria “in order to convey to Putin that we [France] are also part of this.”
The Kremlin confirmed that Putin talked to Macron over the phone “on the initiative of the French side” on Monday. The French leader “informed of the results of his visit to the US with the emphasis on the talks on the situation around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program,” it added.
“The Presidents of Russia and France have spoken in favor of preserving that Plan and its rigorous execution,” the Kremlin said.
Trump has been a vocal critic of the Iranian accord, which was signed in 2015 under his predecessor Barack Obama, since his campaign for the White House. He slammed it as the “worst deal ever,” which only benefits Tehran and in no way prevents it from making a nuclear bomb.
The president promised to pull the US out of the agreement, with the threat to be fulfilled if he doesn’t renew a waiver on sanctions against Iran by May 12.
Macron’s visit to the US last week was seen as an attempt to persuade Trump to stay in the JCPOA deal, which is strongly backed by all of its signees, including Russia, China, the UK and the EU.
However, after talks in the White House, the French leader suddenly said that he was willing to take the US president’s concerns on board and work on a “new” Iran deal. The French president expressed his belief that the JCPOA should not be torn apart, but a wider accord must be reached to also curb Iran’s ballistic program and contain its influence in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.
READ MORE: UK, France & Germany unite to defend Iran deal amid US threats to 'fix or leave'
After Macron left for Paris, Trump said on 'Fox and Friends' that he made the French president change his mind on the accord. “He is viewing Iran a lot differently than he did before he walked into the Oval Office. He understands where I am coming from with respect to Iran, and that’s important,” he said.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told Macron on the phone on Sunday that Tehran won’t make any addition concession as part of the nuclear deal, saying that the accord “is not negotiable in any way.”
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