BIARRITZ, France — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday there’s a “really good chance” he could meet with Iran’s leader on their nuclear impasse after a surprise intervention by the French president during the G-7 summit to try to bring Washington and Tehran together after decades of conflict.
French President Emmanuel Macron orchestrated the high-stakes gamble to invite the Iranian foreign minister, whose plane landed at the locked-down airport of the coastal resort of Biarritz during the Group of Seven gathering of the world’s major democracies. Relying on his carefully cultivated chemistry with Trump, Macron shuttled between high-level official meetings in a conference center barricaded by security to a small room in the town hall filled with European and Iranian diplomats.
Macron, who is known to exchange casual texts with Trump, kept him in the loop minute by minute, both men said as they stood together on stage, recounting the weekend. They embraced at least once before going their separate ways.
Their joint news conference capped an unexpectedly dramatic gathering normally known for bland public expressions of unity and no small amount of sharp exchanges behind closed doors.
