War of words between Tehran and Paris ahead of French FM’s scheduled visit to Iran

Tabnak – As the French foreign minister is due to visit Iran for high-level talks with Iranian officials, Paris has intensified its pressures on Tehran to give a compromise on missile and regional issues. Iranian and French presidents have reportedly discussed the same issue in a phone call on Sunday.

Iranian media report that President Hassan Rouhani and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, have discussed the latest developments regarding Iran's nuclear deal with the P5+1 group of countries, as well as the current situation in Syria's Eastern Ghouta.

The two presidents held a phone conversation on Sunday on the eve of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian's scheduled visit to Tehran.

According to Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi, the French foreign minister is to arrive in Tehran Sunday night to hold talks with senior Iranian officials.

However, ahead of his visit to Tehran, Le Drian claimed that Iran needed to address international concerns over its ballistic missile program or it risked new sanctions.

"There are programs for missiles that can travel several thousand kilometers, which are not compatible with UN Security Council resolutions and which exceed the needs of defending Iran's borders," Jean-Yves Le Drian told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

The French foreign ministry said in a statement that France also wants Iran to start contributing in a “positive” manner to resolving the crises in the Middle East. “In this regard, the crisis in Syria and the humanitarian situation there will particularly be discussed, along with other regional issues where Iran is involved (such as Yemen, Libya and Iraq),” the ministry said.

Meanwhile, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, on Saturday urged Paris not to make claims that it could not deliver on. 

He expressed confidence that Iran would not allow anyone to interfere in the type of defense equipment it can possess in the field of conventional weapons, whether missiles or others.

On the other hand, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman has also said that the Islamic Republic would not permit other countries to undermine its defense might while they are themselves supplying regional countries with lethal weapons.

Stressing Iran's peaceful relations with all its neighboring countries, Velayati said, "If the French foreign minister's visit is aimed at strengthening relations, he’d better avoid taking such negative positions."

According to IRNA, during his two-day stay in Tehran, Le Drian is scheduled to hold talks with senior Iranian officials, including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The talks will focus on the international, regional and bilateral issues, according to the news agency.