France is going to draft a proposal for a negotiated deal with other European powers to try to stop the current escalation between Israel and Iran.
French President Emmanuel Macron instructed his Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, to draft a proposal for a potential deal between the two countries and to work on the document in coordination with other European partners. No further details have been disclosed on the shape of the proposal.
France, Germany and Britain have been in close communication ever since Israel launched a massive air strike against Iran, and most likely, those are the countries Macron referred to when speaking about European powers.
Macron publicly told Israel to de-escalate the situation by targeting only nuclear sites and ballistic missiles in its air strikes against Iran. According to the President’s office, Macron is concerned about “a mounting number of civilian victims in Iran and Israel” and urged an end to the strikes to lower tension in the region.
France, together with Britain, Germany and the European Union, were instrumental in signing a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 to monitor its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. However, during Donald Trump’s first term, the US, one of the other co-signatories of the landmark deal, withdrew from it, and the deal all but collapsed. Trump has promised another deal with Tehran on the issue, but talks have stalled so far.
