French foreign minister has lately made baseless claims on Iran’s quite conventional, legitimate arms programs while his country has been clearly breaching the human rights by selling lots of arms and munitions to the Middle East countries to be used against defenseless, unarmed nations.
Jean-Yves Le Drian on Saturday evening of Jan 2, 2021, claimed in an interview that the "revival of the nuclear deal is not sufficient. It is also necessary to hold tough talks on Iran’s regional activities and its ballistic missiles program."
He even added that Iran is also working to fortify its nuclear capabilities.
In response to Le Drian’s claims, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif twisted: "You began your services at French cabinet with selling arms to Saudi war criminals. Stop making baseless, thoughtless remarks about Iran."
Zarif also reminded his French counterpart that "It is “you” who make “our” region insecure; stop providing arms for the criminals who use “your” arms and munitions for butchering children in Yemen."
Selling French arms to countries that obviously breach human rights is an issue that even Reuters referred to in reaction to Zarif’s remarks, writing: French President Emanuel Macron’s government criticizes some countries and human rights groups on his support for Saudi Arabia, but is now faced with opposition against usage of French arms in Riyadh’s war against Sanaa.
According to the Swedish arms monitor, Sypris 2020 report, after the United States and Russia, France ranks 3rd in arms sales around the globe, while Paris has a long record of selling arms and munitions to non-democratic regimes in the Middle East.
During the Iran-Iraq war in addition to selling more than 130 Mirage fighter jets to Saddam’s regime, a number of helicopters, air to surface and anti-Tank missiles, France also sold five advanced Super Standard fighter jets to Iraq to help Baghdad have the higher hand in oil tankers’ war, while by exporting more than 400 Exocet anti-ship missiles to Iraq, they enabled Saddam’s regime to launch heavier attacks against the civilian Iranians.