Iran tells France's Macron not to 'blindly follow' Trump

Iran on Sunday criticised French President Emmanuel Macron over his tough stance toward Tehran. Reuters reports the Iranian government as saying that Paris would soon lose its international credibility if it “blindly follows” US President Donald Trump.

Tensions between Iran and France have risen in recent months after Macron said Tehran should be less aggressive in the Middle East, citing in particular its involvement in Syria’s civil war.

Macron, unlike Trump, has reaffirmed his country’s commitment to the deal Iran signed in 2015 with world powers under which it curbed its disputed nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of most international sanctions.

However, he has been critical of Iran’s ballistic missile tests and wants to raise the possibility of new sanctions over the programme, which Tehran calls solely defensive in nature.

Read: Iran rejects Macron call for talks on Iranian missiles

Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency:

To sustain its international credibility, France should not blindly follow the Americans … The French president is now acting as Trump’s lapdog

Velayati also criticised US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who last week presented pieces of what she said were parts of an Iranian missile supplied to the Tehran-aligned Houthi militia in Yemen. She described the objects as conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating UN resolutions.

“This claim shows she lacks basic scientific knowledge and decency. She is like her boss (Trump) as he also says baseless, ridiculous things. Iran has not supplied Yemen with any missile,” Velayati said.

Read: France cautious over US ‘evidence’ on Iran weaponry in Yemen