Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Iranian official drops by G-7 summit
Surprise visit made after French leader’s invitation; no talks held with U.S.
BIARRITZ, France — A top Iranian official paid an unannounced five-hour visit Sunday to the Group of Seven summit after a last-minute invitation from the French president.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was not invited to attend any of the formal Group of Seven sessions, nor did he meet with any American officials, according to French and Iranian officials.
A senior French official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said Zarif met with France’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and that French President Emmanuel Macron joined in the last 30 minutes of the three-hour meeting at the Biarritz City Hall. Zarif later tweeted that he briefed diplomats from Germany and Britain.
“Iran’s active diplomacy in pursuit of constructive engagement continues,” he wrote on Twitter. “Road ahead is difficult. But worth trying.”
Zarif was in Paris on Friday to meet with Macron just before the start of the Group of Seven meeting. At least some of the other leaders of the world’s largest developed economies were not informed ahead of time about Zarif’s visit.
The French official said Macron personally informed
President Donald Trump about the invitation to Zarif. The official noted that Macron and Trump met for two hours Saturday and discussed Iran at length. They also talked at the informal group dinner Saturday night, the official said.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaking with reporters, would not discuss Zarif’s visit, but he did make a point of repeating Trump’s expressions of willingness to talk with Tehran.
“The president has said before that to the extent Iran wants to sit down and negotiate, he would not set preconditions to those negotiations,” Mnuchin said. “I’m not going to make any more comments about who’s here and who’s not here and what conversations may or may not be going on.”
But in Washington, Zarif’s appearance drew warnings from Iran critics.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley called it “completely disrespectful” to Trump and the other Group of Seven leaders.
“Iran supports terrorism at every turn and continues to pursue ‘Death to America,’” she tweeted. “Manipulative of Macron to do this and very insincere. #NotWhatFriendsDo.”
And Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said that “hearing that the Europeans are negotiating with the Iranians again is of little comfort to me.”
“Mr. President,” he tweeted, “continue to stand firm against Iran’s aggression.”
REACHING OUT
Macron said early Sunday that at Saturday’s group dinner, the Group of Seven leaders had agreed that Macron could speak for them in talks with Iran, but he had to walk that back when Trump later denied agreeing to anything regarding negotiations with the Islamic Republic.
“I haven’t discussed that,” Trump said Sunday morning. He offered no public objection to Macron’s outreach to Iran, “but we’ll do our own outreach,” he said. “But you know, I can’t stop people from talking. If they want to talk, they can talk.”
Macron later said he had no formal mandate from the group, noting that Trump is the president of the “world’s No. 1 power” and has to defend Americans’ interests first.
A French official said members of the Group of Seven planned to revisit their conversations on Iran today after Zarif’s departure.
For several months, Macron has taken a leading role in trying to save the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, which has been unraveling since Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement negotiated under former President Barack Obama’s administration. White House officials have complained for weeks that Macron was trying to broker talks between the U.S. and Iran.
French officials have said Trump’s “maximum pressure” approach against Iran is doomed to fail, and they have sought to persuade the White House to change course and accept a new deal with the Iranians.
Trump’s pressure campaign has involved a mix of sanctions and public threats aimed at crippling Iran’s economy. And recently, the effort has included sanctions and travel restrictions on Zarif.
Tristen Naylor, deputy director of the independent G7 Research Group that studies the members of the Group of Seven, described Macron’s invitation to Zarif as “a wildcard move.”
“The risks to the French president were quite large. He could have evoked a very strong and negative reaction from the American president — everything from outright condemnation to actually the American president just saying ‘enough of this’ and getting on the plane and flying away,” Naylor said.
But the invitation, Naylor said, was also something of a mirror of Trump’s own highstakes diplomacy.
“What works with him, what resonates with him, is surprise, is a big move, something flashy,” he said. “And the French president has taken a page from it, I think, executed a maneuver out of it with great aplomb.”