French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump talked about Iran in a closed-door meeting on Saturday November 10, as some 70 world leaders gathered in Paris over the weekend to mark the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, reports from Paris said on Sunday.
The CNN quoted a French Presidential spokesperson as having said that at the meeting, Macron insisted on the need to support the nuclear deal with Iran, also called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and European policy in general.
“But it was clear that Mr. Trump was sticking to his guns on this one. He did however go on to say that it was important to keep up the pressure on Iran and to weaken it,” the CNN quoted the spokesperson as saying.
Macron reportedly suggested further talks between Paris and Washington about Iran. "it’s a good idea to enter into more negotiations, as the French and US positions are really quite close,” the report added.
According to the French Presidential spokesperson, Trump said, “what we need is a major agreement that would give us 100% guarantee that Iran wouldn’t get an atomic bomb.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported on Saturday that Macron proclaimed “great solidarity” between the two nations and said the leaders will discuss a litany of issues during their one-on-one meeting, including Iran, Syria, Yemen, trade and climate change.
Also on Saturday, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a tweet that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his French counterpart Jean-Yves LeDrian had discussed strengthening NATO countering Iran's malign behaviour, denuclearizing North Kora and the crisis in Syria.
Meanwhile, a journalist in Tehran, Akram Sharifi also tweeted that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his French Counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian discussed the West's nuclear deal with Iran over the phone.
According to Sharifi, during the conversation Le Drian stressed on Paris and EU's support for Iran's benefits of this agreement.
Following the US pull-out from the JCPOA in May, the remaining EU partners to the agreement promised to help Iran to continue benefit from the agreement and assist European companies working with Iran to get away with the impact of US sanctions in case they decided to continue working with Tehran.
In the meantime, the United States reinstated the pre-JCPOA sanctions against Iran and has vowed to add new sanctions if Iran refused to enter into fresh talks over its nuclear and missile programs and its intervention in the affairs of regional countries.
As the latest round of sanctions started to target Iran's oil exports and banking operations on November 5, Iran is still waiting for Europe's special financial measures to take effect.