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Emmanuel Macron Heads to White House to Lobby Trump on Iran Emmanuel Macron to Press Trump to Keep Iran Nuclear Deal
(about 9 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Emmanuel Macron of France was scheduled to arrive at the White House on Monday on a mission to persuade President Trump not to scrap the multinational nuclear agreement with Iran, even as Tehran’s foreign minister warned that there was no alternative to the deal and “it is either all or nothing.” WASHINGTON — President Trump will come under increasing pressure from visiting French and German leaders this week not to scrap the nuclear agreement with Iran next month as American and European negotiators make halting progress toward toughening the limits on Tehran.
Arriving in Washington just weeks before a May 12 deadline for Mr. Trump to keep or abandon the accord, Mr. Macron hoped to use his unusual bond with the American president to make the case that the world was safer with the deal in place. The French leader has promised to work with the United States and European partners to strengthen it. President Emmanuel Macron of France arrived Monday at the White House for the first state visit of Mr. Trump’s presidency, intent on using his unusual bond with the American president to try to persuade him to preserve the Iran deal, at least for now. While not as close personally to Mr. Trump, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany will follow on Friday to reinforce the message.
Is the pact “a perfect thing for our relationship with Iran? No,” Mr. Macron said on “Fox News Sunday,” choosing Mr. Trump’s preferred channel to telegraph his message before his arrival on Monday. “But for nuclear, what do you have as a better option? I don’t see it. What is the what-if scenario or your plan B? I don’t have any plan B for nuclear against Iran.” The back-to-back visits come weeks before a May 12 deadline set by Mr. Trump to “fix” the Iran agreement or walk away from it. Under the agreement, signed in 2015 by President Barack Obama, Iran has curbed its nuclear program in exchange for relief from crippling international sanctions. But Mr. Trump and other critics have assailed it because it begins to expire after a decade and does not block Iran’s missile development or stop it from destabilizing the region.
Mr. Macron hastened to add that he was “not satisfied” with the situation in Iran and would support modifications to the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. “My point is to say, don’t leave now to JCPOA as long as you don’t have a better option for nuclear, and let’s complete it with ballistic missile and a regional containment,” Mr. Macron said. In recent weeks, American and European negotiators have generally come to a shared position on measures to constrain Iran’s ballistic missile program, according to people briefed on the talks. But negotiators remain divided over how to extend the restrictions of the original agreement that otherwise will lapse starting in 2025.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, picked up on that message on Monday to warn that there would be no substitute for the nuclear accord if Mr. Trump tears it up. Most importantly, the Europeans want assurances that if a supplemental agreement is reached, the United States will stay in the deal — a hard commitment for American officials to make given Mr. Trump’s mercurial nature — but European leaders hope they can persuade him to hold off by showing enough progress in negotiations that he can claim he is making the deal better.
“I suspect that this will be a very difficult conversation,” said Wendy R. Sherman, the former top State Department official who negotiated the Iran deal for Mr. Obama. “I’m sure that Macron will say how important staying in the deal is to a strong trans-Atlantic relationship in all things, particularly security. I think Merkel will deliver the same message on Friday.”
Even so, the White House signaled Monday that Mr. Trump enters the talks with one set impression: “He thinks it’s a bad deal — that certainly has not changed,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary.
If Mr. Macron and Ms. Merkel can persuade Mr. Trump to stick by the Iran agreement for now, it could influence the president’s forthcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader who already has a small nuclear arsenal. Whatever its flaws, American officials understand that canceling the Iran deal days or weeks before that meeting might complicate Mr. Trump’s chances of making an agreement with Mr. Kim.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, implicitly made that point on Monday by noting that the negotiations that led to the nuclear agreement between his country and six world powers involved give and take by all sides.
“And now the United States is saying, ‘What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is negotiable. But whatever I gave you, now I want it back,’” Mr. Zarif said in an interview with The National Interest, a Washington policy magazine. “Who would, in their right mind, deal with the U.S. anymore?”
Mr. Trump faces conflicting positions among his own advisers as he reconstitutes his national security team. John R. Bolton, his new national security adviser, has long advocated simply ending the Iran deal, while Mike Pompeo, set to become secretary of state, is open to keeping it if strong new provisions can be negotiated.
Mr. Macron arrived in Washington to a festive welcome: American and French flags flew on Pennsylvania Avenue as he and his wife, Brigitte Macron, arrived at the White House and were greeted by Mr. Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump.
Mr. Macron reached in for a hug and kissed Mr. Trump on both cheeks, French-style, a sign of their warm ties. The two couples headed inside for a few minutes and then out to the South Lawn, smiling and chatting casually as cameras recorded the moment.
Wielding shovels, the two presidents moved some dirt around where a tree was to be planted, a gift from the Macrons. The tree, a European sessile oak, came from Belleau Wood, where, during World War I, nearly 10,000 American Marines were killed or injured in battle in June 1918. From there, the two couples flew by helicopter to George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate for dinner.
The Macrons will return to the White House on Tuesday morning for a pomp-filled arrival ceremony on the South Lawn, complete with members of all five branches of the military in formal uniforms. The two presidents will hold meetings and conduct a joint news conference. In the evening, the Trumps will host their first state dinner, featuring rack of spring lamb and Carolina gold rice jambalaya cooked New Orleans style.
Mr. Trump, 71, and Mr. Macron, 40, have forged an unlikely friendship, despite their political differences over the Iran deal, international trade, climate change and other issues. But while Europeans consider Mr. Macron their envoy to Mr. Trump, he has had mixed success influencing the president. The two leaders teamed up to launch airstrikes against Syria this month in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack, but when Mr. Macron publicly said he had persuaded Mr. Trump to keep American troops in the country “for the long term,” the White House quickly rebutted him.
Mr. Macron has stronger credentials on the Iran deal than Britain or Germany because France was the most fervent in pressing for tougher provisions in 2015. Having learned the best way to communicate with Mr. Trump, Mr. Macron telegraphed his message by appearing on the president’s favorite network, Fox News, over the weekend.
Is the pact “a perfect thing for our relationship with Iran? No,” Mr. Macron said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But for nuclear, what do you have as a better option? I don’t see it. What is the what-if scenario or your Plan B? I don’t have any Plan B for nuclear against Iran.”
Mr. Macron added that he was “not satisfied” with the situation in Iran and supported modifications to the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or J.C.P.O.A. “My point is to say, don’t leave now to J.C.P.O.A. as long as you don’t have a better option for nuclear, and let’s complete it with ballistic missile and a regional containment,” Mr. Macron said.
Mr. Zarif picked up on that on Monday to warn that there would be no substitute for the nuclear accord if Mr. Trump withdrew.
“President Macron is correct in saying there’s no ‘Plan B’ on JCPOA,” Mr. Zarif wrote on Twitter. “It’s either all or nothing. European leaders should encourage President Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more importantly to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith.”“President Macron is correct in saying there’s no ‘Plan B’ on JCPOA,” Mr. Zarif wrote on Twitter. “It’s either all or nothing. European leaders should encourage President Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more importantly to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith.”
Negotiated under Mr. Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, the nuclear deal was signed by the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia, China and Iran in 2015. The negotiations with European officials, led by Brian Hook, the State Department’s director of policy planning, have found some common ground, according to people briefed on the talks.
Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for relief from crippling international sanctions. But Mr. Trump and other critics have assailed the agreement because some of its provisions begin expiring after a decade and it does not block Iran’s ballistic missile program, much less address its actions to destabilize the region. Negotiators have agreed on measures to impose sanctions on Iran if it tests long-range missiles, but are still divided on how to respond to testing of short- and medium-range missiles. They have agreed that Iran would be sanctioned if it blocks international nuclear inspectors from military sites. And they have made progress in defining a trigger for reimposing sanctions — if Iran were found to have expanded its nuclear program enough to allow it to develop a weapon in less than a year.
Mr. Trump has demanded that the deal be “fixed” by May 12 or he will pull out. The State Department has been negotiating with Britain, France and Germany in hopes of crafting a supplemental agreement that would address some of his criticisms, like the expiration clauses, inspection provisions and ballistic missiles. But negotiators are divided over what would happen then. The Trump administration wants sanctions to be imposed automatically if Iran trips that wire, while the Europeans want a reassessment to determine whether the expansion is consistent with Iran’s civilian nuclear program.
But no consensus has been reached and the Europeans reportedly want assurances from Mr. Trump that he would remain in the deal if they reach one. Moreover, it is not clear that Iran would go along even if an agreement eventually is sealed, and Russia and China, the other parties to the original deal, have resisted changes as well. “The Europeans have moved very far in a few months, and I think this should be bridgeable, but of course it really depends on Macron and Trump,” said Mark Dubowitz, the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “It sounds narrow, but it’s actually pretty fundamental. It’s entirely possible that the thing breaks down on that basis.”
“We are against revising these agreements,” Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said on Monday after meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, according to news reports from Beijing. “We consider it very counterproductive to try to reduce to zero years of international work carried out via talks between the six major powers and Iran.” Russia and China, the other parties to the original deal, have resisted any changes. “We will obstruct attempts to sabotage these agreements, which were enshrined in a U.N. Security Council resolution,” Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said Monday after meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Beijing.
“We will obstruct attempts to sabotage these agreements which were enshrined in a U.N. Security Council Resolution,” Mr. Lavrov added. But critics of the deal pressed Mr. Trump to remain strong. On Monday in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel again condemned the agreement.
Iran will be perhaps the highest profile of several issues on the table as Mr. Trump and Mr. Macron meet. “Israel will not allow regimes that seek our annihilation to acquire nuclear weapons,” he said.
Others include the ongoing civil war in Syria, the continuing conflict with Russia, Mr. Trump’s threats of tariffs and the disagreement over climate change. Mr. Trump and Mr. Macron teamed up to order airstrikes against Syria this month in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack, but the French leader has been lobbying the American president not to pull out a small contingent of United States troops. “This is why we opposed so resolutely the Iran deal — because it gives Iran a clear path to a nuclear arsenal” and “does not deal with the ballistic missiles that can deliver this weapon to many, many countries,” he added. “This is why this deal has to be either fully fixed or fully nixed.”
The two joined Britain and other European nations in expelling Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy living in Britain. But they are far apart on climate change, with Mr. Macron seeking to save the Paris accord negotiated under Mr. Obama after Mr. Trump announced last year that he would withdraw the United States, making it the only nation in the world not to join.
Mr. Macron’s trip to the White House will be the first state visit of Mr. Trump’s presidency. The French president and his wife, Brigitte Macron, are due to arrive at the White House shortly after 5 p.m., welcomed by Mr. Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump. The two couples are slated to plant on the South Lawn a tree that the Macrons provided as a gift, a European Sessile Oak that comes from Belleau Woods, where more than 9,000 American Marines died in battle in June 1918 during World War I.
From there, the two couples will fly by helicopter to George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate for dinner. The Macrons will return to the White House on Tuesday morning for a pomp-filled arrival ceremony on the South Lawn, complete with military units in formal uniforms. The two presidents will hold meetings and conduct a joint news conference.
In the evening, the Trumps will host their first state dinner, featuring rack of spring lamb and Carolina gold rice jambalaya cooked in New Orleans style. On Wednesday, Mr. Macron will address a joint meeting of Congress, hold a town hall-style meeting at George Washington University and conduct a solo news conference before heading home.
Mr. Macron will not be the only European leader scheduled to be in Washington this week to press Mr. Trump on the Iran deal. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is due to visit the White House on Friday, although without the trappings of a state visit.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said on Monday that both leaders were expected to raise their views on the Iran deal.
“But the president has been very clear about how he feels about this deal and changes that he needs and wants to see reflected will certainly come up and get ahead of anything the president may or may not commit to or what he would want to see in that,” she said on Fox News. “The president has been very clear on what he’d like to see in this deal and how he wants to make sure we get something better.”
Michael Anton, who recently left his post as spokesman for Mr. Trump’s National Security Council, suggested that Mr. Macron appeared flexible on revising the Iran deal. Mr. Macron’s remark on Sunday “leaves the door open” to the sort of “follow-on agreement” between the European Union and the United States that Mr. Trump is seeking, Mr. Anton said on the same Fox program.
“This would be a pledge between the United States and our allies to multilaterally reimpose sanctions if the Iranians went on a track toward a nuclear weapon,” he said.