G7 leaders agreed to "instruct French President Emmanuel Macron to talk with Iran and send him a message" to avoid escalation in the region, diplomatic sources told AFP on Sunday.
But Sunday noon, Donald Trump denied the fact that the G7 had mandated the French president. "I did not discuss this," he said in response to reporters about Iran. During a briefing with journalists, Emmanuel Macron said he had not been given an "official mandate". "We will continue to act in his own role," said the French president.
"Avoiding Iran's adoption of nuclear weapons"
According to these diplomatic sources quoted by AFP, the leaders also reaffirmed, during a dinner Saturday at the opening of the G7 summit in Biarritz, that their objective was "to prevent Iran from acquiring the 'nuclear weapon". France is leading European efforts to try to save the Iranian nuclear deal, weakened by the withdrawal of the United States.
"The leaders of the G7 have agreed on two points: we do not want Iran to adopt the nuclear weapon and nobody wants the destabilization of the region nor the escalation, in order to avoid a military conflict", said this source.
Macron, mediator for several months
Playing mediators for months, Emmanuel Macron, who talks regularly with Iranian President Hassan Rohani, presented Saturday to Donald Trump a compromise to break the deadlock.
He presented him with the option of allowing Tehran "for a limited period to export some of its oil" in exchange for a return to its commitment not to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. Donald Trump, after torn up the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and reinstated heavy sanctions, demands new guarantees from Iran over its diplomatic and military activities.