August 21, 2019
PARIS (Reuters) – France’s president said on Wednesday he would meet Iranian officials ahead of this weekend’s G7 summit and make proposals to help de-escalate tensions between Washington and Tehran.
“In the coming hours before the G7 I will have meetings with the Iranians to propose things,” Emmanuel Macron told reporters.
Iran’s foreign minister said earlier this week he would meet Macron and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris on Friday. Two French diplomats said a joint meeting was likely on Friday, but that it had not been made public due to the sensitivity of the Iran dossier.
France has sought over the summer to play a mediating role as relations between the United States and Iran deteriorate, although there has been little sign of any breakthrough.
With punishing U.S. sanctions squeezing its economy, Iran has said it will gradually reduce its commitments to a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers until the European powers party to the accord – France, Britain and Germany – do more to ensure Tehran benefits financially from the accord.
(Reporting by Michel Rose and Marine Pennetier; Writing by John Irish; Editing by Richard Lough)
