France’s Macron sends senior diplomat to Iran to defuse US tensions
President Emmanuel Macron sent his top diplomatic
adviser to Iran this week as part of European efforts to defuse tensions
between Tehran and Washington, the French presidency said Thursday.
The adviser, Emmanuel Bonne, held “high-level
meetings” Wednesday in Tehran, “with the aim of contributing to the de-escalation
of tensions in the region,” Macron’s office said.
The presidency refused to say whom Bonne met, adding
only that he left Tehran on Wednesday evening.
The strains between Washington and Tehran increased
Thursday with Iran’s announcement that it had shot down a US “spy drone” that
violated Iranian airspace near the Strait of Hormuz.
The United States has yet to respond.
The incident marks the latest escalation in tensions
following last week’s attacks on two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, which
the United States blamed on Iran.
Tehran has denied any involvement.
Tensions between the longtime foes, who have had no
relations since the hostage crisis that followed the 1979 Islamic revolution,
have increased sharply since US President Donald Trump last year abandoned a
landmark 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and re-imposed sanctions.
Macron, who is traveling to a G20 summit in the
Japanese city of Osaka on June 28-29, will “have contact with the main players”
in the standoff, his office said.
Before that he will pay an official visit to Japan
on June 26-27, during which he will hold talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
who recently traveled to Iran to try mediate in the crisis.
Abe met with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, who categorically refused to hold talks with Trump.
The EU is under pressure from Tehran to try salvage
the 2015 deal, with Iran threatening to breach its nuclear enrichment limits.
On Tuesday, Macron urged Tehran to be “patient and
responsible.”
