Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Trump, Iran: Will talk
France coaxes presidents toward dialogue
BIARRITZ, France — U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani each said Monday that they were willing to meet on their nuclear impasse after decades of conflict.
Trump agreed with French President Emmanuel Macron, who served as a go-between, that there’s a “really good chance” that a face-to-face meeting — the first between a U.S. and Iranian leader since the Tehran hostage crisis of 1979-81 — could occur within weeks.
“If the circumstances were correct, were right, I would certainly agree to that,” Trump said at a joint news conference with Macron at the end of the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz.
However, Trump added a note of caution, saying that the Iranians “have to be good players,” and that if they pursue their aims at the expense of America’s national interests, “they’re going to be met with really very violent force.”
Rouhani, in a televised speech in Iran, also said he was open to talks. Iran had previously said it would not negotiate directly with the U.S. unless it honored the conditions of the 2015 nuclear accord among world powers.
Iran promised in the nuclear agreement not to develop nuclear weapons. Trump called the agreement too weak and last year abandoned it, and his administration imposed harsh economic sanctions that have crippled Iran.
“If I knew that going to a meeting and visiting a person would help my country’s development and resolve the problems of the people, I would not miss it,” Rouhani said, in an apparent reference to Trump.
“We have to negotiate, we have to find a solution, and we have to solve the problem,” Rouhani added.
Trump and Rouhani are scheduled to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York during the last week of September, and a meeting could happen on the sidelines. Trump spoke Monday alongside Macron, who weeks ago was publicly chastised in a Trump tweet after rumors that Macron was working to set up a meeting between the two nations.
“I want to be very cautious and very modest, but I think that this is going to lead to putting an end to escalation and reaching a suitable solution to this,” Macron said.
The French president later added, “At a given point in time, there will have to be a meeting between the American and Iranian president.”
A French official said talks on Iran continued into Monday with a small team of diplomats who stayed behind in France. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.
Macron would not say how far the discussions went.
“I can’t tell you more for the moment publicly because anything I could tell you will undermine the discussions,” he said.
In recent months, Iran has breached certain provisions of the accord in a bid to persuade the other signatories — France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China, who remain in the agreement — to push back against the Americans, reset the terms of the deal and keep it afloat.
Iran wants to continue to sell oil, despite a U.S. embargo that has drastically cut its exports. Much of the foreign investment promised under the deal has since dried up as foreign companies have left Iran to avoid being sanctioned. Trump was asked Monday whether he could support Macron’s proposal to give Iran compensation under the sanctions to help keep it afloat. The president rejected that idea, saying he would instead be open to short-term loans.
“No, we’re not paying. We don’t pay,” Trump said of Iran. “But they may need some money to get them over a very rough patch. … It would be secured by [Iran’s] oil, which to me is great security and they have a lot of oil, but it’s secured by oil. So we’re really talking about a letter of credit-type facility.”
But he also had praise for Iran, saying it “is not the same country that it was 2½ years ago when I came into office.”
“I think that Iran is a country of tremendous potential,” Trump said. “We’re not looking for leadership change, we’re not looking for that kind of change. This country has been through that many times before. That doesn’t work. We’re looking for no nuclear weapons, no ballistic missiles, and a longer period of time. Very simple. We can have it done in a very short period of time.
“And I really believe that Iran can be a great nation,” Trump added. “I’d like to see that happen, but they can’t have nuclear weapons. OK?”
‘MUST MOVE AHEAD’
No U.S. and Iranian leaders have met since the 444day hostage crisis that broke relations and hobbled Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
Then-President Barack Obama talked by telephone with Rouhani in 2013, but the Iranian leader declined to meet in person amid pressure from hard-liners in his own country.
Last year, when the Trump administration voiced its interest in a meeting, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave a harsh speech forbidding any dialogue with the United States.
But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, at Macron’s invitation, made a surprise visit to the Group of Seven summit where, according to Macron, he transmitted his government’s agreement to talks. Experts said that neither Zarif nor Rouhani would have openly endorsed talks with the U.S. without Khamenei’s approval.
In his televised speech, Rouhani defended his foreign minister against criticism from the hard-liners who say sanctions must be lifted before talks can begin.
“Even if the odds of success are not 90% but are 20% or 10%, we must move ahead with it,” Rouhani said. “We should not miss opportunities.”
Iranian hard-liners have denounced any direct talks as humiliating, arguing — as they did with Obama — that refusing face-to-face talks shows their independence and unwillingness to aid any U.S. leader.
“What to do with the person selling the Iranian presidency to the Trump campaign?” Mahdi Mohammadi, a conservative national security analyst, asked on Twitter.