France’s Macron Asked Iran’s Rouhani Not to Escalate Tensions

(Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron asked Iranian President Hassan Rouhani not to escalate tensions and to resume respecting its 2015 nuclear deal.

In a phone call Tuesday, Macron told Rouhani that France was “deeply worried” by recent events in the Middle East and asked Rouhani “to refrain from taking any action that would aggravate rising tensions,” the French executive said in a statement.

Macron urged Iran “to rapidly return to full compliance with its commitments” under the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran said Sunday it would stop respecting restrictions on enriching uranium in the wake of the U.S.‘s killing of a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani.

During the one-hour phone call, Rouhani told Macron that the U.S. could not be immune from retribution, according a statement on his official website. Rouhani said Iran would return to full compliance with the nuclear deal as soon as other participant countries meet their own obligations under the terms of the accord.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Williams in Paris at rwilliams323@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, Meghan Genovese

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