Trump, Macron talk Iran as French envoy heads to Tehran to try to defuse crisis
French President Emmanuel Macron mediates to try to defuse Iran crisis.
US President Donald Trump spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron about Iran today for the second time in a week, as Macron prepared to send his top diplomatic adviser back to Iran.
The intensified consultations come as the UN atomic watchdog agency confirmed reports that Iran had increased the level of its uranium enrichment to a slightly higher degree of purity than that permitted under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Trump and Macron “discussed ongoing efforts to ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon and to end Iran’s destabilizing behavior in the Middle East,” the White House said in a readout of the July 8 call.
Macron also held a phone call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani July 6, during which they discussed ideas for renewed dialogue to try to lower tensions. Iran in the past several days has reduced compliance on two aspects of the nuclear pact in response, it says, to the failure of the other parties to the deal to find a workaround to a virtual US blockade on Iran’s oil exports.
