![\"Rouhani_archive_photo\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/Rouhani_archive_photo.jpg\" "\\"Rouhani_archive_photo\\"")
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The Associated Press<\/p>\n
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) \u2014 Iran\u2019s president back-pedaled Tuesday on possible talks with Donald Trump, saying the U.S. president must first lift sanctions imposed on Tehran, otherwise a meeting between the two would be a mere photo op.<\/p>\n
Hassan Rouhani\u2019s change of heart came a day after Trump said Monday that there\u2019s a \u201creally good chance\u201d the two could meet on their nuclear impasse after a surprise intervention by French President Emmanuel Macron during the G-7 summit to try to bring Washington and Tehran together after decades of conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout the U.S.\u2019s withdrawal from sanctions, we will not witness any positive development,\u201d Rouhani said in a televised speech on Tuesday, adding that Washington \u201cholds the key\u201d as to what happens next.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone intends to make it as just a photo op with Rouhani, that is not possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Monday, Rouhani expressed readiness to negotiate a way out of the crisis following America\u2019s pullout from the nuclear deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I knew that going to a meeting and visiting a person would help my country\u2019s development and resolve the problems of the people, I would not miss it,\u201d he had said. \u201cEven if the odds of success are not 90% but are 20% or 10%, we must move ahead with it. We should not miss opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rouhani also shielded his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, against criticism from hard-liners over his surprise visit Sunday to France\u2019s Biarritz, where leaders of the Group of Seven rich democracies were meeting.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s English-language Press TV issued a vague, anonymous statement later on Monday, rejecting Macron\u2019s initiative.<\/p>\n
Macron said he hoped Trump and Rouhani could meet within weeks in hopes of saving the 2015 nuclear deal that Tehran struck with world powers, but which the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from last year. Under the deal, Iran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Macron acknowledged his efforts to bring Iran and the U.S. together are \u201cfragile\u201d but said he still sees a \u201cpossible path\u201d to rapprochement between the two.<\/p>\n
Inviting Zarif to the G-7 summit as a surprise guest was a risky diplomatic maneuver but it helped create \u201cthe possible conditions of a useful meeting,\u201d Macron said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s France\u2019s responsibility to play the \u201crole of a balancing power,\u201d Macron said, adding that his efforts allowed hope for a \u201cde-escalation\u201d of tensions.<\/p>\n
Since the U.S. pullout from the nuclear deal, Iran has lost billions of dollars in business deals allowed by the accord as the U.S. re-imposed and escalated sanctions largely blocking Tehran from selling crude abroad, a crucial source of hard currency for the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
Rouhani\u2019s U-turn can be seen as a result of pressure from hard-liners in the Iranian establishment who oppose taking a softer tone toward the West.<\/p>\n
But it could also reflect that the paradigm of grand photo op summits in exotic locations \u2014 such as Trump\u2019s meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un \u2014 while stringent sanctions remain in place, does not necessarily appeal to Rouhani, whose signature accomplishment was the nuclear deal, which started unravelling with Trump\u2019s pullout.<\/p>\n
The hard-line Javan daily, which is close to Iran\u2019s powerful Revolutionary Guard, warned Rouhani in large font on its Tuesday front page: \u201cMr. Rouhani, photo diplomacy will not develop the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
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