Trump and MacRoon hope to resume negotiations with Iran

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macaron expressed a measure of unity on Thursday over the Iranian nuclear issue and expressed hope that negotiations would resume despite their differences over the nuclear deal, which Washington has withdrawn.

"I understand that they (the Iranian government) want to talk, that's very good, we'll talk, but there's something certain: they can not get a nuclear weapon, and I think the French president will fully agree with me," Trump told reporters in Macron's presence in the western French city of Conne.

"We want to be certain that they will not get nuclear weapons," McCronon said, adding that "we have a tool that will continue until 2025," referring to the nuclear agreement signed in Vienna in 2015, which Trump later rejected as not fulfilling For his purpose.

The French president offered a series of goals for France, including reducing Iran's ballistic activity and reducing its regional influence, adding to it a common goal between Paris and Washington, "peace in the region," for which "we should start new negotiations," McCron said. .

The confrontation between Iran and the United States intensified last month, a year after Washington withdrew from an agreement between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear program in return for lifting international sanctions.

Trump criticized the nuclear deal signed by his predecessor, Barack Obama, saying it was flawed because it is non-permanent and does not cover Iran's ballistic missile program or its role in conflicts in the Middle East. And calls on Iran to sit at the negotiating table to conclude a new agreement.

The European countries signatories to the agreement in 2015 - France, Britain and Germany - share Washington's concerns about the Iranian ballistic missile program and Tehran's regional activities.

The French president has long sought to market the idea of ​​his new deal, which he believes would broaden the base of the 2015 agreement by including elements limiting Tehran's ballistic missile activity, but defended the nuclear deal, saying it sets at least restrictions on its nuclear program and could be the basis for talks. Futuristic.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to go to Iran next week, Japanese officials said Thursday, as Tokyo, which Trump visited last week, hopes to mediate between Washington and Tehran.