US President Donald Trump is not afraid of surprises but could he take one of the biggest shifts of all in his foreign policy — easing sanctions on Iran?
Washington is widely skeptical that Trump will shift course on Iran, with his hawkish advisors long pushing a hard line aimed at crippling the clerical regime.
But Trump, who earlier shocked by meeting North Korea’s leader, appeared open on Monday as French President Emmanuel Macron proposed a summit in the coming weeks with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani.
Responding to a suggestion by Macron, the host of a Group of Seven summit in the coastal resort of Biarritz, Trump said that Iran “may need some money to get them over a very rough patch” in the form of a line of credit.
The idea is part of a French-led effort to keep alive a 2015 deal under which Iran drastically scaled back its nuclear work. The accord was negotiated under former president Barack Obama and trashed by Trump.
Barbara Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, said Macron was likely trying to buy time and keep Iran in the deal — sending a message as well that Trump could be gone after elections next year.
Iran has played down the possibility of a summit, with Rouhani saying that the United States must first lift all sanctions — which have badly hurt an economy that had soared following the nuclear agreement.
Slavin doubted Trump would end sanctions — or that any gesture would lead to a summit, the most likely venue for which would be on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York next month.
Source: Guardian Newspaper.
