Macron to meet Trump, Rouhani at UN
Meetings amid EU bid to salvage nuclear deal; US envoy says seeking treaty with Iran
President Emmanuel Macron will separately meet his US and Iranian counterparts, Donald Trump and Hassan Rouhani, during the UN General Assembly in New York next week, the French presidency said yesterday.
Macron will meet Trump on Monday afternoon before having dinner with UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres. On Tuesday, the French president will address the assembly and hold talks with Rouhani, an Elysee Palace official said.
The meetings come as Macron and other European leaders try to salvage a landmark 2015 accord to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme, which Trump pulled the US out of. He signalled he might be willing to meet with Rouhani as well, after re-imposing sanctions against Iran last month.
A new round of even harsher sanctions is set to go into effect in November, targeting Iran’s vital oil sector.
The US accuses Iran of destabilising the Middle East by pursuing missile development and its intervention in conflicts in neighbouring countries, including Syria and Yemen.
Iranian officials have repeatedly ■ indicated they have no plans to hold talks with Trump when the general debate opens at the assembly on Tuesday.
US seeks treaty with Iran
Meanwhile, the United States is seeking to negotiate a treaty with Iran that will cover both its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes, the US special envoy for Iran said yesterday, ahead of UN meetings in New York next week. “The new deal that we hope to be able to sign with Iran ... will not be a personal agreement between two governments like the last one, we seek a treaty,” envoy Brian Hook told an audience at the Hudson Institute think tank.
But Hook said Iranian leaders have not been interested in talking despite statements by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this year that the administration was willing to meet.
Trump announced in May that he was pulling the United States out of an Obama-era nuclear deal signed between Iran and six world powers. The 2015 deal was an executive agreement that was not ratified by the US Senate. A treaty would require approval by the Senate.
Opponents of the nuclear agreement have argued that Obama’s failure to seek ratification of the deal allowed Trump to unilaterally scrap the deal in May.
Trump will chair a session on Iran during the UN General Assembly meetings in New York next week. In July, Trump said he was willing to meet Iran’s leaders “anytime they want” prompting speculation that a meeting could occur at the UN meetings next week.
“The ayatollah, the president and foreign minister have all indicated they are not interested in talking,” Hook said, referring to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. “We respect that though that does not change our plans. We have a sanctions regime that is underway, stronger measures are yet to come,” he added.
Hook said the administration was expanding its efforts to ensure that purchases of Iranian oil were “close to zero” by November 4 when Washington reimposes oil sanctions on Iran.