Emmanuel Macron has said that a French diplomatic initiative could lead to a summit between the US and Iranian presidents “within a few weeks”.
Macron made the announcement at a press conference with Donald Trump at the end of the three-day G7 summit in Biarritz, and he pointed to remarks from the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, earlier on Monday, expressing willingness to meet anyone if it was in the national interest, The Guardian reports.
Trump said he would be ready to meet, if the conditions were right. He did not specify what those conditions would be, but agreed it would be realistic to expect a meeting in the coming weeks. The Iranian and US presidents are both due to attend the UN general assembly in New York in mid-September.
Macron said the possibility of a US-Iranian summit was the consequence of a French diplomatic initiative aimed at defusing rising tensions after Trump’s decision last year to leave a multilateral nuclear deal with Iran.
He did not give details of the negotiations, but French officials said they involved a partial rollback of US sanctions and full Iranian compliance with the 2015 deal in order to pave the way for a resumption of high level US-Iranian diplomacy.
Macron said the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, flew to Paris on Friday with Iran’s negotiating position. After speaking to Trump and the other G7 leaders at a dinner on Saturday night, the French president decided there was enough convergence to invite Zarif to Biarritz for more talks.
“Through this coordination we took an initiative yesterday to bring back the Iranian foreign minister and many exchanges with the French ministers which has allowed us to sketch a path,” Macron said. “Nothing is certain and it is still extremely fragile, but there have been discussions on a technical level with some real progress.”
He said he had told Rouhani that if he agreed to meet Trump he believed “an agreement can be found” and said Rouhani had reacted positively.
Meanwhile, POLITICO says that Macron emerged triumphant from this weekend’s proceedings, largely by playing to Trump’s interests and ego throughout, essentially adopting an approach of keeping his friends close and Trump closer.
The key messages from the press conference include:
Macron:
Scrap digital tax once an international agreement is found. US and France agreed that an agreement on digital tax in 2020. We had lengthy discussions on China and the global economy. Dispute between China and US has created uncertainty. Trump cleared his very clearly his willingness to find a China accord. The quicker an agreement is arrived at, the quicker the uncertainty will dissipate and that’s the President’s wish as well. We decided yesterday to accelerate world trade reform
Trump:
All countries were getting along well. I think China wants to make a deal very badly. The vice-chairman came out and said he wants to see a deal made under ‘calm’ conditions. China losing millions of jobs. The tariffs have hit them very hard, we’ve collected over $100 billion in tariffs. If they Chinese supply chain is broken, it might not be possible to put it back together. We can have Iran deal in a very short period of time. Iran can’t have nuclear weapons. If the circumstances were right, I would certainly meet with Rouhani. I think we’re going to make a deal with China, I think we’ll eventually make a deal with Iran too. If China doesn’t make a deal, it’s going to be very bad for China. I thought yesterday’s statement from Lui He was beautiful, it said a lot. I’ve lost between $3-$5B by become President. My people looked at 12 sites for G7 but Doral is such a natural spot. I’m not considering national security tariffs on Japan ‘at this moment’. Having Russia in the room is better than having them outside it. There were ‘numerous’ phone calls from China. Asked about volatility says ‘it’s the way I negotiate’. We’re the #1 energy producer in the world
Via ForexLive/The Guardian
