Iran Foreign Minister Makes Surprise Visit to G7 Summit

By Helene Fouquet and Josh Wingrove

Emmanuel Macron has thrown his G-7 guests a mid-summit curveball—inviting Iran’s foreign minister for a surprise visit in a move that risks infuriating Donald Trump’s administration.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif flew to Biarritz, the French seaside resort town that’s the site of the summit, on Sunday as leaders met nearby. The French government insisted he wasn’t in the town to join the G-7, but instead to meet nearby with the French foreign minister as part of a bid by Macron to deescalate the crisis.

Still, the arrival came as a stunning development, and several delegations appear to have been caught off-guard—the Americans and Canadians declined to say if they had advance notice, while the Italians found out from French news wire AFP. Iran already has dominated the discussions at the G-7, with Macron and Trump sparring over Macron’s outreach to the Islamic Republic.

Zarif was in Paris only last week, meeting with Macron about the future of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal. Zarif described the talks as “constructive and good”, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.

Zarif is a lightning rod for the Trump administration, which sanctioned him personally just recently and heavily restricted his movements during a recent visit to New York. Macron had wanted to shake up the summit, and he has already angered the American side, which accused him of trying to manipulate the agenda to embarrass Trump.

The French president is trying to show that he’s achieved something on the geopolitical issues he’s raised, and he has led the European effort to salvage the Iran nuclear deal, after Trump pulled out in 2018. Macron told TF1 television Sunday that leaders agreed they need to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons and destabilizing the region -- though that was the state of play before talks began.

Macron also touted an agreement to send a joint message from the G-7 to Iran as one of his victories from a dinner among the leaders. "We’ve enacted a common communication, which in my view has a lot of value,” he said this morning in a French television interview.

But Trump immediately pushed back on the idea that Macron was speaking for the whole G-7, and therefore Trump as well. “We’ll do our own outreach,” he said. “But I can’t stop people from talking.”

One person familiar with the situation says Trump does not agree that Macron can convey a message from the G-7 to Iran since the leaders didn’t all settle on what the message should be.

Trump has pursued a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, using sanctions to cut off their sales of oil in a way that’s hurting that nation’s economy. White House officials say the G-7 countries agreed Trump’s pressure campaign on Iran is having an impact, and that it should continue.

Photo: IRNA

Trump Unlikely to Support Macron’s Plan to Revive Iran Deal

By Helene Fouquet and Nick Wadhams

French President Emmanuel Macron pitched U.S. President Donald Trump on a plan to end the standoff over the Iran nuclear deal—by allowing Iran to sell oil for a limited period of time in exchange for returning to talks and to compliance with the agreement.

The proposal was described by a French official after Macron and Trump sat down to an impromptu lunch that stretched for two hours at the Group of Seven Summit in Biarritz, France. A senior U.S. official termed the plan a non-starter.

The U.S. in the past has resisted any compromise that allowed Iran to resume selling oil, which is sharply restricted by U.S. sanctions. That’s why ending the impasse and putting the deal back together is so difficult: Iran’s No. 1 demand to come back to the bargaining table is that it be allowed to sell oil to help its struggling economy.

The French official described a plan that would occur in two phases. Iran would be allowed to sell some volume of its oil in exchange for a series of commitments: return to compliance with the existing agreement, find ways to lower tensions in the Persian Gulf amid a spate of tanker seizures, and return to structured talks on missiles, regional issues and what happens after 2025, when the current agreement is set to expire.

The hope, this official said, is that this could create a de-escalation that allows the two sides to begin talking again, particularly knowing that both Trump and the Iranians have said they don’t want war. Macron met with an Iranian delegation on Friday, including Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, to discuss this proposal.

Trump pulled out of the deal in May 2018, saying it didn’t do enough to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Iran remained in compliance with the deal for a time, but recently said it was enriching uranium at higher levels than allowed in the deal—meaning it’s no longer in line with the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.

Macron has led a European effort to find a compromise that would get Trump back to the table with the Iranians. One struggle has been finding incentives for Iran to renegotiate a deal that took effect so recently, this time surely at worse terms for Iran.

Salvaging the Iran nuclear accord is one of the key topics of the summit at this beach resort town, which sees Trump in his customary role as the outlier to the European nations that still think the deal can be saved. Another potential stumbling block to compromise in Biarritz: Trump brought with him national security adviser John Bolton, the leading Iran hawk in his administration.

Photo: Wikicommons

Macron Meets Iran FM to Push for G7 Detente

By Valérie Leroux

French President Emmanuel Macron was to hold talks Friday with Iran's foreign minister ahead of a G7 meeting where he will attempt to soothe tensions between Tehran and Washington at what risks being a stormy summit.

"We're at a critical moment," Macron warned on Wednesday, acknowledging that Iran is "laying out a strategy for exiting the JCPOA," the name of the 2015 accord reining in the country's nuclear ambitions.

He admitted this week there were "true disagreements" over Iran within the G7 club of rich nations, which are meeting in France this weekend.

But Macron said he would "try to propose things" in the talks with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Friday.

Tensions have soared in recent months over Iran's disputed nuclear programme, with both Tehran and Washington claiming to have shot down rival drones in the Mideast.

Iran has also locked horns with Britain, with Iran's Revolutionary Guards seizing a British tanker in July after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar.

France has stepped up its outreach to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, with Macron twice dispatching his diplomatic advisor Emmanuel Bonne to Tehran in recent months.

"President Rouhani instructed me to go and meet with President Macron (to see) whether we can finalise some of these proposals in order to be able to have everybody comply with their obligations under the JCPOA," Zarif said in Norway on Thursday.

"It's an opportunity to review the proposal by President Macron and to present the views of President Rouhani and see if we can find more common ground. We already have some common ground."

But the nuclear deal has all but collapsed after US President Donald Trump pulled the US out unilaterally in May 2018 and re-imposed sanctions that have wreaked havoc on the Iranian economy.

The European signatories vowed to find a workaround and have implored Tehran to respect the deal nonetheless.

But in July, it announced its nuclear programme would no longer be bound by some of the deal's key restrictions.

"They can be reversed as soon as Europe comes into compliance with its own obligations under the JCPOA," Zarif said Thursday.

Maximum Pressure

Macron's diplomacy is a delicate task, with France seeking a rollback on some of the US measures imposed on Iran as part of Trump's "maximum pressure" policy towards the Islamic republic.

French diplomats have raised the idea of US waivers on sanctions affecting Iranian oil exports to India and China, or a new credit line for Tehran that could help the struggling economy.

US President Donald Trump has accused Macron of sending Tehran "mixed signals", a charge rejected by the French government, which says its role is "to make every effort to ensure that all parties agree to a break and open negotiations."

On a host of issues, G7 members France, the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan find themselves at loggerheads, upending what used to be a cosy club of rich nations.

Trump left the last summit in Quebec in June 2018 accusing his host, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, of being "very dishonest and weak".

The US leader is set to arrive for the French summit in the town of Biarritz on Saturday already riled by a new French law that will increase taxes on US internet giants such as Google and Facebook.

Trump is also threatening tariffs on the European automobile sector, while the climate change sceptic is not expected to contribute to Macron's official agenda of fighting global warming.

The fierce fires devouring thousands of acres in the Brazil's Amazon rainforest could spark further disputes, with both Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying the crisis demands a collective G7 response.

That garnered a furious response from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—often called "South America's Trump"—who denounced any such G7 talks on the fires a display as "colonialist mentality."

Faced with the multiple G7 divisions, French officials have scrapped the idea of a final joint statement -- seen as an admission of the summit's lowered ambitions.

Photo: Wikicommons

France Says 'Needs No Permission' for Iran Dialogue After Trump Swipe

France said Friday that it "needs no permission" to work towards easing tensions between Iran and the US, after President Donald Trump accused his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron of meddling in the dispute.

"On Iran, France speaks with complete sovereignty. It is working hard for peace and security in the region, it is working to facilitate a de-escalation in tensions and it needs no permission to do so," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement.

In a tweet Thursday, Trump claimed that Iranian officials want "desperately to talk to the US, but are given mixed signals from all of those purporting to represent us, including President Macron of France."

"I know Emmanuel means well, as do all others, but nobody speaks for the United States but the United States itself. No one is authorized in any way, shape, or form, to represent us!" he said.

Trump has reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran after pulling out of an international deal aimed at curbing the country's nuclear ambitions.

But the European partners to the accord, including France, have resisted his attempts to isolate the Iranians.

Le Drian said the worsening tensions between Tehran and Washington, which have been blamed for attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf and downings of drones, called for initiatives to try to restore dialogue.

"That's what President Macron is doing, in full transparency with our partners, above all our European partners," he said, adding that Macron was "obviously keeping American authorities informed".

On Tuesday, the Al-Monitor news site reported that Macron, who speaks regularly by telephone with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, had invited Rouhani to attend the G7 summit in France on August 24-26 to meet with Trump.

The report, which cited two unidentified sources, said Rouhani had declined to attend or send a representative.

The French presidency has denied the report, saying Macron never put forward any such proposal.

After a call with Rouhani on Tuesday, the French leader, who has attempted to mediate in several disputes in North Africa and the Middle East, said it was France's role "to make every effort to ensure that all parties agree to a break and open negotiations."

The dispute with Iran is expected to be a major issue at the G7 summit in the southwestern city of Biarritz.

Paris has engaged in intense diplomacy to try to resolve the tensions, with Macron's foreign policy advisor Emmanuel Bonne twice visiting Tehran.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit Macron at his holiday retreat on France's Mediterranean coast on August 19 to discuss the Iranian situation, ahead of the G7 meeting.

Photo: French MFA