Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has landed in Biarritz, France, where G7 leaders are discussing French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to revive the Iran nuclear deal.
The plane, an Airbus A321 bearing the callsign IRAN05 touched down in Biarritz shortly after 2pm local time, according to flight tracker site AirNav. IRAN05 is the callsign used by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s official jet, and flew in and out of Paris earlier this week when Zarif met with Macron for talks on the floundering Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, or Iran Deal).
🇮🇷 Iran's Foreign Minister @JZarif ✈ Airbus A321-231 EP-IGD MODE-S 7324E4 Callsign: IRAN05 tracking stopped at Biarritz (BIQ) at 03:13PM EEST, where the G7 is currently taking place from Tehran. pic.twitter.com/8CAYZLYo1v
The 2015 deal all but collapsed after the US withdrew unilaterally last May, leaving Washington’s European allies struggling to maintain trade with Tehran in the face of multiple rounds of US sanctions, and with military tensions between Iran and the US flaring in the Persian Gulf.
President Macron has made restarting negotiations with Tehran a priority at this weekend’s G7 summit, after meeting with Zarif on Friday, and holding telephone talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani beforehand. Though it was reported that the G7 leaders had agreed to task Macron with delivering a joint statement to Iran, US President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that he hadn’t “discussed that.”
When asked about the reports of Zarif’s alleged visit to the summit, Trump remained tight-lipped, saying “no comment.”
Trump and Macron entered this weekend’s summit holding vastly different positions on Iran. Whereas Macron presented his peace plan to Trump – which involved an agreement to allow Iran sell its oil, Trump arrived with hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, and insisted that his “maximum pressure” campaign of economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic was working.
