Members of the Israeli security forces inspect the damage in front of a residential building hit by an Iranian missile attack in Beersheba, southern Israel, on June 20, 2025. (Credit: Maya Levin/AFP.)
The diplomatic path is the only solution to sustainably resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear program, estimated the French Foreign Ministry spokesman on Friday, a few hours before a meeting on the subject in Geneva.
Israel launched a massive airstrike on June 13 against the Islamic Republic targeting its nuclear program, which triggered an Iranian response. Since then, Israeli strikes on Iran and Iranian missile attacks on Israeli territory have continued.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom will meet Friday afternoon in Geneva with their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi with the aim "to re-engage in dialogue to achieve a solid and serious agreement," said Christophe Lemoine on the Cnews channel. "This is an extremely important meeting," he added, emphasizing that it brings together the group of three European countries that have been involved from the start in negotiations with the Iranians.
"The Iranian nuclear program is a subject that has occupied diplomacy for 20 years," he recalled. "It is a serious subject and history shows that the only way to compel a country to comply with its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is through diplomatic means," he said. "Military solutions are not long-term solutions," he reiterated, adding that the international community could not "take the risk of military operations that could spiral out of control in a region that is already extremely, extremely volatile."
"Yes, Iran is a destabilizing country" and "the nuclear program, the ballistic program are real threats" but the diplomatic path remains the one to follow, he said. The United States and its Western allies, as well as Israel, considered by experts to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, have long accused the Islamic Republic of Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, which it has always denied.
Iran has accelerated its production of highly enriched uranium for several years now, to a level far exceeding the limit set by a 2015 international agreement known as the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the EU were all signatories of this agreement, which was undermined by Donald Trump during his first term.
Today, "France's goal is for Iran to comply with its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty." "This is the international framework for nuclear regulation on a global level. Iran is a signatory of this treaty. Iran must comply with its obligations," Christophe Lemoine also stated as Western countries now fear that Iran might exit the NPT.