Macron sees Iran nuclear programme reaching 'breaking point' as Trump return looms

Peace in the Middle East is possible but requires Europe to engage with 'good faith Arab partners', says French President

Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech to French ambassadors posted around the world, in Paris on Monday. Reuters

France will over the coming months consider the possibility of reinstating sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme that President Emmanuel Macron on Monday described as reaching "breaking point".

"We can clearly see that the challenge we face in the region and beyond is Iran," Mr Macron told French ambassadors gathered in Paris in a speech that outlined his diplomatic priorities for 2025. "The acceleration of its nuclear programme brings us very close to the breaking point. Its ballistic programme threatens European soil and therefore our interests."

The French leader also referred to Iran's "support of dangerous military groups across the Middle East's battlefields" and its military support of Russia in its war against Ukraine.

Calling on "verifiable and irreversible solutions" to curb Iran's nuclear and ballistic activities, Mr Macron said France was ready to reinstate sanctions on Iran in the coming months. "We will have to ask ourselves whether to use the mechanism for re-establishing sanctions. We are ready to do so if the question arises," he said.

France, Germany and the UK – collectively known as the E3 – have paved the way for this possibility by pushing the International Atomic Energy Agency for a resolution on Iran that was passed by the IAEA's board of governors in November.

The three countries were the only in Europe to take part in a failed 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which former US president Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.

A mechanism known as snapback could reactivate international sanctions that had been suspended under the nuclear deal. The E3 aims to pressure Iran to return to the negotiating table to agree on new restrictions on its nuclear activities.

French, German and British diplomats are set to hold a new round of meetings with Iranian counterparts on January 14 and 15 in Switzerland. A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry has said Iran believes in dialogue, while the government in Tehran maintains its nuclear programme is peaceful.

Iran will be France's priority when it engages with the new US administration when Mr Trump returns to power at the end of the month, Mr Macron said. "In this context, the Iranian question will without doubt be one of the key questions via which we'll re-engage with the new US administration," he added.

'No naivety' on Syria

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, represents the "other major security challenge" for France, Mr Macron said. "There will be no quick and easy solution in Ukraine," he said, before warning that Ukrainians needed to have "realistic discussions on territorial issues", clearly urging Kyiv for the first time to consider territorial concessions.

He warned that the credibility of western countries would be shattered if they agreed to compromise on Ukraine because of fatigue. "A capitulation by Ukraine cannot be good for Europeans and Americans," the French President said.

In his speech, Mr Macron also highlighted risks of terrorist activity, which he linked in some parts of the globe to Iran, but also to Syria, from where a series of deadly attacks on French soil in 2015 were fomented by members of ISIS.

France is monitoring the power transition in Damascus, which was taken over by rebel groups with former links to Al Qaeda "without naivety", he added.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited Syria's de facto leader Ahmad Al Shara at the weekend in the highest-profile western visit since the rebel takeover last month.

In an interview on Sunday with French radio station RTL, Mr Barrot said that while he was "lucid" about Mr Al Shara and his HTS group, he also noted they had fought against ISIS in the past.

Both Mr Macron and Mr Barrot reaffirmed France's support for Kurdish groups in north-eastern Syria, whose fate may be uncertain since HTS takeover but are considered valuable partners in parts of Europe. In prison camps they guard dozens of former ISIS members viewed as a terrorist threat by western leaders. "We know what France's debt is to Syrian Democratic Forces and Kurdish fighters," said Mr Macron.

He said France would in the spring organise the third Baghdad summit, a meeting that has previously been attended by Arab and Iranian officials. "The agenda that we are pursuing in Iraq, as in Syria, is that of defending both the sovereignty of each of these countries and their pluralist and constitutive models," he said.

Working closely with Gulf countries was also among the priorities listed by Mr Macron, who was speaking a month after a visit to Saudi Arabia, during which he held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The two leaders signalled their willingness to move forward on a sale of French Rafale fighter jets to Saudi Arabia in what Mr Macron described at the time as a "major change in bilateral relations". He also hailed France's security partnership with the UAE as a major success.

France supports Saudi Arabia in its global push for the establishment of a Palestinian state and a meeting in New York in June will be a "decisive moment", he said. Like many EU countries, France has so far not recognised Palestinian statehood.

Mr Macron has previously defended Israel’s security interests, including by ordering the French military deployed in Jordan to intercept Iranian missiles fired towards Israel in October, but has also repeatedly criticised the humanitarian consequences of its war on Gaza.

"Peace is possible," Mr Macron said, but Europe must engage with "good faith Arab partners", including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar, to push for a two-state solution.