What did Macron offer?
With the offer he made on Tuesday to work on “a new, more comprehensive agreement,” the French president “intelligently presented the same problem, but in a different way,” said Behnam Ben Talbleu of the Institute for Defense of Democracies, which was one of the most vocal critics of the 2015 agreement.
These new negotiations are supposed to address the concerns expressed by Trump, but while preserving the original agreement, which will become the first of the “four pillars” of the future text. The other pillars relate to the post-2025 period, when some provisions expire, but also the controversial ballistic missiles and Iran’s role, which is considered “destabilizing” in the region.
The most prominent new element in the proposal is that the matter will no longer be related to separate issues discussed between Westerners, but rather actual negotiations involving Iran and the major powers.
Behnam Ben Talblo said, “It is necessary to negotiate with Iran, otherwise you will face a problem at some point because the ultimate goal is to change the Iranian position.”
What will Trump do on May 12?
No one actually knows what the US President’s intentions are, but his French counterpart did not hide his pessimism on Wednesday, pointing out the dangers of leaving the agreement signed in 2015, especially for “domestic political reasons.”
Luigi Scazieri, an expert on Middle East affairs at the Center for European Reform, said that “Macron and Trump did not agree on anything,” noting that the American president did not promise his French counterpart anything publicly.
He added, “But Trump seems relatively open to Macron’s idea of maintaining the current agreement while expanding it at the same time.”
In any case, it seems that the French proposal gave hope to the supporters of the nuclear agreement.
The “Diplomatic Works” group, which was founded by former US Secretary of State John Kerry to defend this agreement, of which he was “one of its architects,” praised a “wise” initiative, saying that it enhances “the possibility of the United States remaining in the Iranian nuclear agreement while relying on its successes to conclude other agreements, including… The rest of Iran’s activities.
For his part, US diplomat Christopher Ford, in charge of non-proliferation affairs, said on Wednesday in Geneva, “I hope that the Iranian agreement will be saved in the context of the challenges posed by President Trump,” but chief US negotiator Brian Hook seemed more cautious.
He told American Public Radio, “It is too early to say whether we will be able to reach an agreement with the Europeans. There are still differences.”
