Macron backs Trump's strike on Iran but warns of Tehran leaving nuclear non-proliferation treaty

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were “genuinely effective” but the “worst-case scenario” would be if Tehran now exits the global non-proliferation treaty.

“The worst would be that the consequence of this is Iran’s exit from the Non-Proliferation Treaty and therefore, ultimately, a drift and a collective weakening,” Macron told journalists after an EU summit in Brussels.

Macron said that in a bid to maintain the treaty – that is meant to limit the spread of nuclear weapons – he would speak in the coming days to the five members of the United Nations Security Council.

Those talks already kicked off with a call with President Donald Trump on Thursday in which Macron said he informed his US counterparts of contacts Paris had with Tehran in “the last few days and hours”.

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“Our hope is that there will be a real convergence of views,” Macron said, adding that the aim was “that there should be no resumption” of nuclear buildup by Iran.

Iran ratified the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) in 1970, committing it to declare its nuclear material to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

But it has recently begun preparing the grounds for a possible withdrawal from the treaty, accusing the agency of acting as a “partner” in Israel’s “war of aggression”.

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American B-2 bombers hit two Iranian nuclear sites with massive GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs last weekend, while a guided missile submarine struck a third site with Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Trump himself has called the strikes a “spectacular military success” and repeatedly said they “obliterated” the nuclear sites.

But US media revealed a preliminary American intelligence assessment earlier this week that said the strikes only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months – coverage sharply criticised by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and others.