Macron: Trump's air strikes against Iran have ‘no legality’
During a press conference in Oslo alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, Macron stressed that while France shares the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, the diplomatic path is the only viable way to achieve it.
Photographing a television set rebroadcasting a speech by Emmanuel Macron.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Monday expressed concern over the lack of a “legal framework” in the recent U.S. airstrikes against Iran's main nuclear facilities, according to reports from Reuters.
During a press conference in Oslo alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, Macron stressed that while France shares the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, the diplomatic path is the only viable way to achieve it.
"There is no legal framework, no, even though France shares the objective of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons," Macron said, according to the news agency.
He added that the bombings, which also involved Israel, could be considered legitimate to neutralize nuclear facilities that pose a threat, but insisted that “there is no legality to these strikes” according to reports from The Telegraph.
The strikes, ordered by President Donald Trump over the weekend, targeted three key Iranian nuclear facilities.
However, Macron advocated a different approach: “we have consistently believed from the outset that this can only be achieved through diplomatic and technical means,” he said, defending the effectiveness of diplomacy.
The French president also spoke out against the idea of regime change in Iran driven by foreign intervention, a possibility raised by Trump on social media by asking, "Why wouldn't there be a Regime change?"
In that regard, Macron compared Iran's territorial integrity to that of Ukraine and warned that imposing a change of external leadership is “a mistake, not to say a fault, and it has never led to greater stability.”
Finally, he insisted that any change in Iranian leadership must be “result of the Iranian people themselves."
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Germany, for its part, expressed strong support for the move, while Norway, along with other countries, said the bombings violate international law.
These tensions come on the eve of a crucial NATO summit in the Netherlands, where the 32 member states agreed to increase defense spending to 3.5% of their annual economic output, following Trump's warnings about the need for allies to contribute more to their defense by increasing investment.
On the other hand, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte defended the U.S. preemptive strikes, arguing that they do not violate international law.
Rutte expressed fears about the risk of Iran developing and using a nuclear weapon, which could “stranglehold on Israel, on the whole region and other parts of the world,” according to reports from The Telegraph.
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