Macron to Trump: Don't push Iran to leave nuclear deal
French President Emmanuel Macron has called on the US not to push Iran to leave the 2015 nuclear deal as he urged world leaders to stand up to the threat of a new US “hegemony”.
According to Press TV, he said on Thursday “You’re not comfortable with an agreement signed by your predecessor, maybe just because it was signed by your predecessor, but don’t stop others from respecting it and don’t push Iran to leave."
The French president was speaking alongside the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who is hosting the G7 summit in Quebec.
The summit is held amid sharp disagreements between the US president and the six other leaders of industrialized nations over trade, climate change and the nuclear deal with Iran.
Macron called on Germany, the UK, Italy, Japan, and Canada, the rest of the body’s membership, to withstand a potential US slide towards “further isolationism and crude hegemony.”
“I believe in cooperation and multilateralism because I will resist hegemony with all my strength. Hegemony is might makes right. Hegemony is the end of the rule of law,” he asserted.
The remarks came after US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Washington’s allies in what, Macron called, was beating the drums of trade war with them.
“You can’t, among allies in this international context, start a trade war. For me it’s a question of principle,” the French head of state said.
“The six other countries of the G7 represent a market which is bigger than the American market,” he added as he was encouraging the group not to compose the summit’s final statement in a way that would please the US.
“Instead of tailoring the statement to Washington’s expectations, the allies had to come up with one that enshrines common values,” Macron said.
For his part, Canadian Premier Trudeau described the US tariffs as “unilateral and illegal” and a national security pretext, which Trump has offered for imposing them, as “risible.”
He added that Trump’s unacceptable actions are going to harm his own citizens. “It is American jobs that are going to be lost because of the actions of this administration,” the Canadian prime minister said.
ME
