French President Emmanuel Macron with Donald Trump in the White House, April 24, 2018

The outgoing French Ambassador to the US has said that Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal undermined talks to bolster the accord with an agreement over Tehran’s missile program.

Gerard Araud told The Atlantic magazine:

We were negotiating with the [Trump] Administration on an agreement to complement the Iran deal, on missiles, terrorism, and Iran’s regional activities. And we were close to an agreement. There was absolutely no crisis in the negotiation.

And suddenly overnight, everything was over. It was decided overnight; it was decided by Trump. Nobody was warned, and the day after, nobody was able to tell us what it meant for us.

While talk had circulated for months that the Administration would leave the agreement between Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, China, and Russia) — encouraged by Trump’s proclamations of the “worst deal” ever for Washington — European powers had been working diligently with US agencies and with Tehran, which was maintaining compliance with the terms.

Araud recounted:

The guy in front of us was negotiating in good faith [was US special envoy for Iran] Brian Hook. But the problem is that this bureaucracy is so disfunctional. Obviously there is only one person who can commit the United States, and it’s Donald Trump.

Two weeks before Trump’s announcement, French President Emmanuel Macron came to Washington to dissuade him. According to Araud, Macron argued against Trump’s statement, “We are going to leave,” getting Trump’s “yes” that the US and France “should try to work together”.

Araud recalled, “I didn’t have a lot of illusions, but we left with the impression that maybe something was possible.”

Pursuing regime change in Iran, the Trump Administration imposed comprehensive sanctions in November, including on Tehran’s financial and energy sectors.

The Europeans have continued to negotiate with the Islamic Republic, but the launch of a limited Special Purpose Vehicle to bypass US sanctions collapsed when the Iranians objected to “humiliating conditions” — including European criticism of development of missiles.

Last week the Supreme Leader declared that France is a “dictatorship”, trying to suppress the Yellow Vests protests against Macron’s policies.

Iran Daily, March 19: Khamenei — Let’s Make the Enemy Angry

France angered the regime when it joined Germany and the UK in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, calling on him to present a full report on Iran’s recent missile activities.

Iranian officials say missile research and testing does not violate the 2015 deal, since the development is for defensive purposes and none of the missiles are nuclear-capable.

Iran Denies Negotiations

Iranian officials, maintaining their firm line on the missile research and development, denied that there had been any negotiations before the US withdrawal.

“The Islamic Republic has never been a party to such talks, and whatever said on the subject is pure imagination of other parties,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Saturday.

But earlier this month veteran MP Javad Karimi Qoddousi said the Rouhani Government had been in discussions with France, claiming “a recording of the negotiations is available”.

Qoddousi maintained that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to the claim with a semantic distinction: “We do not negotiate, we talk.”