France says Iran's missile programme must be put 'under surveillance'
PARIS - Iran's ballistic missile programme must be placed under international surveillance, French President Emmanuel Macron said, in an bid to get tougher on Tehran while preserving the nuclear deal that Donald Trump has threatened to scrap.
With the 2015 deal, aimed at stopping Iran developing nuclear weapons, put in jeopardy by the US president, Britain, France and Germany are working on a plan to satisfy him by a May 12 deadline to address Iran's ballistic missile tests and its regional influence.
Macron said France, one of the signatories to the nuclear deal, wanted to preserve it as nothing better had been offered.
However, he said the use of Iranian-linked missiles in Yemen and Syria needed to be addressed because they were a security problem for French allies.
"I want a new cycle of negotiations with regional parties and the permanent members of the Security Council, like we did for the nuclear deal, but widening it to regional countries so that we can reduce and eradicate this insecurity," Macron told reporters late on Tuesday.
"And (we need) to put Iran under surveillance over its ballistic missiles. It's indispensable for the security of the region and so we need a mechanism of sanctions and control adapted to that."
