Iran rejects French president's call for talks on Iranian missiles

World Sunday 12/November/2017 14:04 PM
By: Times News Service
Iran rejects French president's call for talks on Iranian missiles

Dubai: Iran rejected on Sunday a call by French President Emmanuel Macron for talks on Tehran's ballistic missiles, saying they were defensive and unrelated to a nuclear agreement with world powers.
On Thursday, Macron said during a visit to Dubai that he was "very concerned" by Iran's ballistic missile programme. He raised the prospect of possible sanctions with regard to those activities.
"There are negotiations we need to start on Iran's ballistic missiles," Macron said.
But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi rejected that possibility. "France is fully aware of our country's firm position that Iran's defence affairs are not negotiable," he said.
"We have told French officials repeatedly that the nuclear deal is not negotiable and other issues will not be allowed to be added to it," Qassemi said, according to a statement on the ministry's website.
The United States on Tuesday called for the United Nations to hold Tehran accountable for violating two U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The United States has imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, saying its missile tests violate a U.N. resolution that calls on Tehran not to undertake activities related to missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Iran says its missile programme is defensive and it has no plans to build nuclear-capable missiles.