French President Emmanuel Macron (L) with Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on sidelines of UN General Assembly (Ludovic Marin/AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron has used the UN General Assembly meeting in New York to renew his mediation effort between Iran and the US, seeking a return to the 2015 nuclear deal and an easing of tension in the Persian Gulf.

Macron officially met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday evening. On Tuesday, the French leader saw Donald Trump and then convened with Rouhani in unscheduled talks.

Before leaving New York for Paris, Macron limited his remarks to a possible Trump-Rouhani encounter at the UN:

I don’t think in the coming weeks and months there will be an opportunity for him (Rouhani) to come back to the US, and I don’t think President Trump will be going to Tehran. It’s a physical opportunity to seize because I think the best way to start a negotiation is to have a meeting, have a frank discussion between the two main protagonists.

He continued, “I believe that the conditions in this context for a rapid return to negotiations have been created. There is a common intent to progress and to not just find the terms of a de-escalation, but to build a long-term accord. But it depends on the will of both sides.”

The French President did not refer to his initiative for a $15 billion line of credit, bypassing US sanctions, to ease Iran’s economic troubles. The arrangement would pave the way for Tehran to resume adherence to all commitments under the nuclear agreement with the 5+1 Powers, from which the Trump Administration withdrew in May 2018.

But the discussion stalled when Paris said it must get US acceptance of the credit, otherwise French financial institutions would be subject to American punishment. Then any talks were suspended after drone and missile strikes on two Saudi oil complexes on September 15.

See Iran Daily, August 27: Tehran Draws Line with France’s Macron — No Negotiations on Missiles

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters on Sunday that discussions were promising until the “game changer” of the attacks on the Saudi oil facilities, which the US has said were carried out by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards with launches from a base in the west of the country.

Macron stepped up his mediation effort in early July, after Donald Trump approved but then pulled back from US airstrikes inside Iran following the Revolutionary Guards’ downing of an American drone.

He told reporters on Tuesday that compromise is needed from both sides:

I think that lifting of sanctions on the part of the Americans without any visibility on the other subjects is not possible. At the same time, clear commitments from Iran on the points I mentioned are not possible without American commitments.