THERAN: The French foreign minister on Monday urged Iran to accept the final proposal put forward to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, warning that time is running out.
A senior EU member said he did not expect any progress on the matter at this week's annual summit of world leaders. Last month, according to both officials, before the Iranian response, things looked promising. According to French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, Iran raised concerns about its responsibilities under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is considered a cornerstone of nuclear disarmament.
She remained unclear. However, the five original nuclear powers – the United States, China, Russia (then the Soviet Union), Britain and France – agreed to negotiate the eventual disarmament of their arsenals, under the terms of the treaty. In exchange for the promise of being able to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes, nations without nuclear weapons pledged not to acquire them. In 2018, the country withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal with the other five nuclear-armed states, Germany and Russia. Iran claims it never received the billions of dollars in sanctions relief it was promised in return for the deal's sanctions on its nuclear program.
America's withdrawal sparked a wave of attacks and other incidents across the wider Middle East. The administration of US President Joe Biden is working to advance the deal. In a news conference on the sidelines of this week's summit of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, Colonna said all parties except Iran had emphasized that "there would be no better proposal on the table for Iran, and It is actually on Iran to make that decision." Later on Monday, he met other foreign ministers of Europe. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said there had been no new developments regarding Iran after leaving the meeting. Additionally, he predicted that "nothing will happen this week."
There is a proposal, and it will remain on the table, he said at a news conference. I don't think there is any better option than the one we have given. Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, in an interview aired on CBS- "60 Minutes of TV" on Sunday, demanded a guarantee that the US would not back down from the nuclear deal. Raisi announced that his delegation had "no plans" to meet or hold talks with US leaders as they left Tehran for the General Assembly session. Regarding a separate nuclear matter, Colonna said France would convene a meeting with UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi on Wednesday to discuss the delicate situation at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southeast Ukraine. Europe's largest plant is still under Russian control.
The building has been shelled, and Russia and Ukraine have traded allegations about who to blame for the attacks. Kolona claimed that on Monday morning, he spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the need for Ukraine, Russia and the whole world to "avoid nuclear catastrophe". She said Grossi, who has advocated for a "nuclear security and security protection zone" around the Zaporizhzhya plant, seemed ready to "hear some detailed proposals" to Lavrov.
Colonna alleged that by waging an unjust war against Ukraine "in a very brutal manner" with violence, "rape, torture and forced liquidation", Russia was undermining the foundation of the United Nations. These are all war crimes, he declared. According to the French minister, Russia has crossed three limits in the conflict: a legal one by defying United Nations Charter provisions that call for a peaceful settlement of international disputes; by the seriousness of the moral one offenses committed in Ukraine; and the political one by undermining food and energy security globally.
Many Russian-speaking Ukrainians who were the targets of Russia's "special military operation" were being persecuted by their government, according to Moscow. Putin claimed the intention was to "demilitarize" Ukraine to counter a perceived military threat from "neo-Nazis", which was condemned by Ukraine and the West on the pretext of an aggressive act. Colona urged China to stop acting "very aggressively" towards Taiwan. He stressed that "China should not question the status quo nor in ways that are not peaceful." His remarks were followed by Biden on "60 Minutes" on Sunday that US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion by Beijing.
The Chinese government condemned the US president's comments on Monday, claiming they go against the US's pledge to oppose Taiwan's formal independence, which Beijing has warned would spark a conflict. In response to increasing displays of force by the ruling Communist Party on the mainland, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, Biden's remark strengthened official Americansupport for the island democracy.
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