Macron, Raisi to meet in bid to revive 2015 nuclear deal

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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in a bid to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

"We'll see what this week brings," French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told reporters earlier Monday. "The window of opportunity seems ready to close again."

"We are repeatedly saying... there is no better offer for Iran," she said. "It's up to them to make a decision."

The Elysee Palace affirmed in a statement that Macron will meet Raisi on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York and with US President Joe Biden the next day.

However, Raisi has lately ruled out meeting with Biden on the sidelines of the UNGA session. In the about-to-be broadcasted interview done on Tuesday on CBS News' 60 Minutes show, Raisi was asked whether he was open to a meeting vis-à-vis US President Joe Biden, to which he replied, "I do not think that such a meeting is going to take place," adding, "I don't believe having a meeting or a talk with him will be beneficial."

The Iranian President also said that reaching an agreement today without guarantees is meaningless.

"If it's a good deal and fair deal, we would be serious about reaching an agreement," the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran stated in the interview, addressing the potential revival of the 2015 nuclear deal in Vienna.

This matter was also stressed by Raisi during his speech to reporters as he announced that he will not meet with his US counterpart Joe Biden because such a meeting "is not in the interest of the Iranian people."

It is worth recalling that the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers back in May 2018 under Trump's presidential term, after which he revived sanctions on Iran as part of the “maximum pressure” campaign he launched against the country and which Biden continues to impose. His administration, however, has repeatedly admitted that the policy has been a mistake and a failure.

At the beginning of his presidential campaign, Biden voiced his intentions to bring the US back into the deal but there has been no sign of that, and the US has even imposed more sanctions on Iran, such as the latest concerning Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and its Minister Esmail Khatib, after the US accused Tehran of being behind a cyberattack against NATO ally Albania without providing any proofs, which Iran denied.