TEHRAN — Iran's new Foreign Minister Hossein
Amir-Abdollahian has said French President Emmanuel Macron has invited him to
Paris, state TV reported on Tuesday.
اضافة اعلان
There was no immediate comment from the Elysee Palace.
Amir-Abdollahian attended a summit in Baghdad on Saturday
alongside regional leaders and
Macron, the only leader from outside the region.
"The French were very interested to use the opportunity
(of the Iraq summit) to get close to Iran," the minister was quoted as
saying by state TV's website in a late night report.
"Mr Macron ... came to me twice and stressed that 'we
are very interested for you to travel to Paris'," he said.
"He called his foreign minister over and said: 'I have
invited (Amir-Abdollahian) ... and we should review bilateral ties and find
solutions to maintain talks'."
Iran and France, alongside Britain, China, and Germany, are
the remaining parties to the troubled 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.
The accord promised Tehran international sanctions
relief in exchange for limits on its nuclear program, but it was torpedoed in
2018 when
former US president Donald Trump withdrew and
reimposed sanctions on Iran.
Six rounds of nuclear talks between Iran and the major
powers — with the US indirectly taking part — were held in Vienna between April
and June in an attempt to revive the accord.
The last round concluded on June 20, with no date set for
another.
The Baghdad summit was also attended by the foreign minister
of Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, with whom Amir-Abdollahian also said
he had met.
Baghdad has been brokering talks between regional rivals
Riyadh and Tehran since April, with the aim of mending ties that were severed
in 2016.
"The Saudi side ... said that we are awaiting the new (Iranian)
government to be established and that we will resume our relations,"
Amir-Abdollahian said, while stressing that no "formal" talks were
held between the two.
The ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi won a June 18 election
in Iran, succeeding the moderate Hassan Rouhani.
He was inaugurated on August 3 by Iran's supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and sworn in by parliament two days later.
Amir-Abdollahian also addressed accusations on social media
that he had breached diplomatic protocol in a group photo at the summit when he
stood in the front row next to leaders while other ministers were placed in the
second row.
The minister said he felt he had stood in "the true
place of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its representative".
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