France says U.S. Iran strategy will reinforce conservatives

French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian attends a meeting on the International Partnership against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons, in Paris, France, May 18, 2018. Christophe Petit-Tesson/Pool via Reuters/File Photo

PARIS (Reuters) - France's foreign minister said on Wednesday he disagreed with the United States' decision to scrap the Iran nuclear deal and warned that its method of adding more sanctions on Tehran would reinforce the country's hardliners. "We disagree with the method because this collection of sanctions which will be set up against Iran will not enable dialogue and on the contrary it will reinforce the conservatives and weaken President Rouhani. This posture risks endangering the region more," Jean-Yves Le Drian told France Inter radio. He said Paris would continue to implement the agreement even if it did agree with the U.S. that Iran's ballistic missile activity and regional hegemonic ambitions needed to be curbed. (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Geert De Clercq)