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France, China Reaffirm Commitment to JCPOA, DPRK Denuclearization - Macron

PARIS (Sputnik) – France and China reaffirmed their support for the Iran nuclear deal, and their intention to achieve the full denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday.
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"We reaffirmed our desire to support the 2015 agreement with Iran and to achieve the full verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions", Macron said during a joint press conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is currently in France with a visit.

READ MORE: Potential US INF Exit to Raise Instability Created by JCPOA Pullout — ICAN

Iran signed a deal with Russia, China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States in 2015 to scale down its nuclear research in return for sanctions relief. US President Donald Trump pulled the United States from the pact and reinstated sanctions on Tehran last year, including curbs on financial transactions.

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China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the European Union — the other signatories to the Iran nuclear deal — slammed Washington's withdrawal from the agreement and the reinstatement of sanctions, saying it threatened not only Iran but also countries and companies that continued to do business with Tehran.

The second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un concluded with no agreement signed in Hanoi in February. Trump walked away from the talks, saying that Kim demanded full sanctions removal, while not pledging to denuclearize exactly the areas that Washington wanted. The US president, however, praised progress in the dialogue and said that it would continue at the level of experts.

READ MORE: US State Department Does Not Rule Out New Sanctions on North Korea

At their first summit in Singapore last June, Trump and Kim agreed to denuclearize the Korean peninsula in exchange for freezing US-South Korea military exercises.

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