Oliver Stone said French President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Washington had been “very depressing” and marked a return to the “imperialism of old France”. He was speaking Tuesday as a special guest at a film festival in Iran.
The far-left filmmaker said he was “particularly shocked” to see Mr. Macron standing alongside President Donald Trump and supporting his call for renegotiating or adding to the Iran JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).
“I couldn’t believe it,” Stone told AFP on the sidelines of the Tehran festival. “I remember very well President (Jacques) Chirac with great pride when he said no to George Bush when he wanted to invade Iraq (in 2003).
“And now to see this young man, who doesn’t have much of a sense of history or memory of the great traditions of France… was very depressing.”
Presidents Donald Trump of the U.S. and Emmanuel Macron of France didn’t deny continued differences on the Iran nuclear deal during a joint press conference at the White House on Tuesday, but shared a belief that a “new” deal with Iran would limit Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for militant groups across the Middle East.
Mr. Trump had threatened to ditch the deal threatened to ditch the deal, which curbed Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, by the next renewal deadline on May 12.
Mr. Stone, a vocal critic of U.S. foreign policy over many decades, accused President Macron of mimicking one of his predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy, who “wants to stand alongside the Americans as a sign of French power”.
“This is a return to the colonialism and imperialism of the old France. This is what President De Gaulle swore off with the Algerian War in 1958-9 when he called it quits,” he said.
“Mr. Macron has to learn that he cannot be an imperialist.”
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