At a joint press conference in Riyadh with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir, Fabius said France attached great importance to ensuring stability in the Mideast, and had invested considerable effort in alleviating regional tensions, Israel Radio reported.
Earlier this week Fabius said the EU would consider following the US’s lead and imposing sanctions on Iran for its development of ballistic missiles. Iran denounced the US’s imposition of new sanctions, introduced at the same time that the international community lifted economic penalties related to Iran’s nuclear program.
“Iran’s missile program has never been designed to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said, according to the ISNA news agency.
After meeting King Salman, Fabius on Tuesday also called for a “de-escalation” of tensions in the region, where relations between Riyadh and Tehran reached a new low this month.
Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Tehran after protesters burned Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran following the kingdom’s January 2 execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is to visit Paris next week, Fabius said, speaking after arriving in Saudi Arabia from Abu Dhabi where he attended the World Future Energy Summit on Monday.
On Monday, Fabius assured officials in neighboring United Arab Emirates that world powers would be “very vigilant” in the monitoring and implementation of the nuclear deal.
The July 2015 nuclear agreement officially entered into force on Saturday, when the United Nations confirmed that Tehran has shrunk its atomic program and ushered in the lifting of painful international sanctions on Iran.
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