Macron says Trump made a mistake by leaving JCPOA
French President Emmanuel Macron has said that the US decision to leave the Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was a “mistake.”
Macron made the remarks on Wednesday during an interview with Germany’s Deutsche Welle broadcaster.
He added that Europe needed to reaffirm its commitments to the JCPOA in an attempt to preserve regional stability.
“What’s most important is to maintain stability and peace in the Middle East,” he added.
“We stand today at a historic moment for Europe — Europe is in charge of guaranteeing the multilateral order that we created at the end of World War II and which today is sometimes being shaken,” he added.
Macron’s remarks came one day after US President Donald Trump declared that his country is pulling out of the JCPOA, saying Washington will not only reinstate the anti-Iran sanctions lifted as part of the deal, but will also “be instituting the highest level of economic” bans against the Islamic Republic.
The JCPOA came out of years of negotiations between Iran on one side and six world powers, namely the US, Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain, on the other, in July 2015.
Other signatories to the deal, as well as the United Nations and the EU had warned Washington against any bid to sabotage it. They call the JCPOA a pillar of regional and international peace and stability, and reiterate the multilateral pact cannot be simply terminated by a single party.
