French President Emmanuel Macron has told his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi that the ongoing nuclear talks need to accelerate, Macron’s office said on Sunday.
He also urged Tehran to release a French Iranian researcher, Fariba Adelkhah, and French tourist Benjamin Briere who are imprisoned in Iran, officials said Sunday.
He made the plea in a “long” phone call on Saturday with Raisi according to a statement from the French presidency.
Diplomats form France, Germany, Britain, and the United States who are trying to save the 2015 Vienna agreement with Iran have said negotiations were moving too slowly.
Iran has rejected any deadline imposed by Western powers.
“The President of the Republic reiterated his conviction that a diplomatic solution is possible and imperative, and stressed that any agreement will require clear and sufficient commitments from all the parties,” the Elysee palace said in a statement after a telephone call with Raisi on Saturday.
“Several months after the resumption of negotiations in Vienna, he insisted on the need to accelerate in order to quickly achieve tangible progress in this framework,” it added.
“He underlined the need for Iran to demonstrate a constructive approach and return to the full implementation of its obligations,” it said.
