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France, Israel call for tougher sanctions against Iran

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French President Francois Hollande and President of the Israeli regime Shimon Peres say sanctions on Iran over its nuclear energy program are “biting” but stress the importance of imposing tougher restrictions on Tehran.

“I have said how much we want the sanctions to be beefed up, which are already efficient,” Hollande said following a meeting with Peres in Paris on Friday.

He added that Paris believes that “economic sanctions against Iran should be aggravated.”

The United States, the Israeli regime and some of their allies have accused Iran of pursuing nuclear energy activities to covertly build atomic weapons.

Using the false allegation, Washington and the European Union have imposed several rounds of illegal unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Israel has threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities based on the unfounded allegation.

Iran has categorically rejected the claim and emphasized that its nuclear energy program follows civilian objectives.

The Israeli regime’s president also called for stronger bans on Iran and said, “The sanctions are effective more than we thought but not enough… and I was very glad to hear from the president (Hollande) that he plans to take more measures because if we can end this danger without military use, it will be better.”

On March 4, the firebrand Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again called for a “clear and credible military threat” against Iran.

The Israeli premier claimed that although Iran has not yet crossed “the red line” in its nuclear energy program, it is “putting itself in a position” to do so “very quickly.”

The Israeli threats come despite international efforts to find a political solution to the Western standoff over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, Russia, France, Britain and the US) plus Germany – the P5+1 group – held the latest round of their talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on February 27-28. The two sides agreed to convene again in the Kazakh city on April 5-6 to continue the negotiations after holding “expert-level” talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on March 17-18.

After the Almaty meeting, both Iran and the P5+1 group expressed hope and optimism about the prospect of their comprehensive negotiations.

On Thursday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei pointed to the West’s track record of disregarding its own agreements and statements and noted that the next round of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group will be a test of Western sincerity.

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