Iranian foreign minister holds talks with Emmanuel Macron on eve of G7 Summit

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrives in Paris today to meet with his French counterpart and President Emmanuel Macron.

Iran has continued to suffer economically since the United States unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a pact that Paris has worked, albeit to little avail, to salvage.

Further barriers to economic cooperation between Iran and the EU have mounted. In the last two months, Iran has downed an American drone, exceeded its JCPOA caps on enriched uranium quantity and purity and become embroiled in tit-for-tat seizures of oil vessels with the UK.

Mr Zarif will likely push for an agreement regarding the sale of Iranian oil today; the country’s most important source of income has been largely handcuffed by US sanctions. However, American pressure to stop all Iranian oil sales will likely frustrate any progress.

Expect a statement espousing multilateralism today, but no concrete policy to back it. In the medium-term, Iran will likely continue to escalate its standoff with the US and Europe by enriching uranium well beyond JCPOA limits. Unless France and the remaining JCPOA parties stand up to Washington, the pact appears doomed to fail in the long-term.

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