BIARRITZ, France:
US President Donald Trump said he was prepared to meet his Iranian counterpart
Hassan Rouhani in the next few weeks after talks over Tehran's nuclear program
at a G7 summit in France. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made a
surprise appearance on the sidelines of the summit in Biarritz on Sunday at the
invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron said that the
"conditions for a meeting" between Trump and Rouhani to take place
"in the next few weeks" had been created through intensive diplomacy
and consultations.

"If the
circumstances were correct, I would certainly agree to that," Trump said
at a joint press conference with Macron. Asked by reporters if he thought the
timeline proposed by his French counterpart sounded realistic, Trump replied:
"It does", adding he thought Rouhani would also be in favor.  "I think he's going to want to meet. I
think Iran wants to get this situation straightened out," Trump added.

Trump has put in
place a policy of "maximum pressure" on Tehran over its disputed
nuclear program via crippling sanctions that are seen as raising the risk of
conflict in the Middle East. The US president last year unilaterally pulled out
of a landmark 2015 international deal that placed limits on Tehran's nuclear
activities in exchange for trade, investment and sanctions relief.

Rouhani defended
Zarif's Biarritz visit in a speech aired live on state television yesterday.
"I believe that for our country's national interests we must use any
tool," he said. "And if I knew that I was going to have a meeting
with someone that would (lead to) prosperity for my country and people's
problems would be resolved, I would not hesitate. "The main thing is our
country's national interests," he said to a round of applause from those
gathered at an event marking government achievements in rural areas.

But hardliners
have criticized the initiative, with the ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper
saying the trip was "improper" and sent "a message of weakness
and desperation". "These improper measures are taken in the fantasy
of an opening but it will definitely have no outcome other than more insolence
and pressure," it added.

Supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards
Corps also criticized engagement with Iran's foes. Their "hostility and
confrontation with the Islamic Revolution is endless and it cannot be resolved
or reconciled through negotiation and dialogue," said Abdollah
Haji-Sadeghi. "We should not expect anything else but aggression, attacks,
sedition and hostility" from the enemy, he was quoted as saying by the
semi-official ISNA news agency.

The reformist
Etemad newspaper, however, described Zarif's trip to France as "the most
hopeful moment" for Iran in the 15 months since the US withdrew from the
nuclear deal. "Given Macron's attempts over the last two months, one can
be hopeful that Trump's response to Macron's ideas has been the main reason for
Zarif's... trip to Biarritz," it said.

The spike in
tensions between Iran and the United States has threatened to spiral out of
control in the past few weeks, with ships mysteriously attacked, drones downed
and tankers seized. Rouhani said his government was ready to use "both
hands" of power and diplomacy. "They may seize our ship somewhere...
we will both negotiate... and we may seize their ship for legal reasons,"
he said, referring to an Iranian oil tanker seized off Gibraltar that has since
been released and a British-flagged vessel still impounded by Iran in the Gulf.

"We can work
with two hands... the hand of power and the hand of diplomacy," said the
Iranian president. "We must use both our power, our military and security
power, economic and cultural power and our political power. We must negotiate.
We must find solutions. We must reduce problems. "Even if the probability
of success... is 10 percent, we must endeavor and go ahead. We must not lose
opportunities."

Macron has urged
the US administration to offer some sort of sanctions relief to Iran, such as
lifting sanctions on oil sales to China and India, or a new credit line to
enable exports. In return, Iran would return to complying with the 2015 deal.
Commenting on the talks about Iran at the G7, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
said: "It's a big step forward. Now there is an atmosphere in which talks
are welcomed."

Appearing to
refer to Iran's recent combative rhetoric about its ability to attack US
interests, Trump suggested Iran would meet "violent force" if it
followed through on its threats. "They can't do what they were saying they
were going to do because if they do that, they will be met with really very
violent force. So I think they are going to be good," he said. Trump said
he was not open to giving Iran compensation for sanctions on its economy.
However he said that the idea under discussion would be for numerous countries
to give Iran a credit line to keep it going.

"No we are
not paying, we don't pay," Trump said. "But they may need some money
to get them over a very rough patch and if they do need money, and it would be
secured by oil, which to me is great security, and they have a lot of oil... so
we are really talking about a letter of credit. It would be from numerous countries,
numerous countries."

Though
potentially a diplomatic minefield, Macron's gamble with Zarif appears to have
worked out for now, as Trump yesterday endorsed the French president's
initiative and toned down his usual harsh rhetoric on Tehran. While Trump
reaffirmed Washington's goal of extracting further-reaching security
concessions from Iran, he said he wanted to see "a really good Iran,
really strong", adding that Washington was not looking for regime change.

"I knew
(Zarif) was coming in and I respected the fact that he was coming in. We're
looking to make Iran rich again, let them be rich, let them do well, if they
want," Trump said. "What we want is very simple. It's got to be
non-nuclear (as well)," Trump said. "We're going to talk about ballistic
missiles..., about the timing. But they (Iran) have to stop terrorism. I think
they are going to change, I really do." Trump said it was too early for
him to meet Zarif himself.

Macron and Trump
hailed the common ground found by G7 leaders at their summit, which was
dominated by the Iranian nuclear crisis, global trade tensions and fires in the
Amazon. "We have managed to find real points of convergence,
unprecedented, very positive, that will allow us to go forward in a very useful
way," Macron told the press conference. Trump said Macron had done a
"fantastic job" at the G7. "This was a very special, a very
unified two and a half days and I want to thank you," Trump told his host.

Meanwhile, Iran
said yesterday it had sold the oil aboard the tanker that was released this
month after being detained for six weeks by the British overseas territory of
Gibraltar. The Adrian Darya 1, formerly named the Grace 1, was seized by
Gibraltar police and British special forces on July 4 on suspicion of shipping
oil to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions.

"The Islamic
Republic of Iran has sold the oil of this ship and right now the owner and
buyer of the oil decides... what the destination of the consignment will
be," Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said, quoted by state media.
He did not identify the buyer or say whether the oil had been sold before or
after the tanker's detention in the Strait of Gibraltar, on Spain's southern
tip.

A court in the
British territory ordered the tanker's release on Aug 15 despite a last-minute
legal bid by the United States to have it detained. The Adrian Darya 1 set sail
three days later for the eastern Mediterranean, carrying 2.1 million barrels of
oil worth more than $140 million. The tanker's final port of call is unknown.
It had initially listed its destination as Kalamata, Greece before switching it
to Mersin, Turkey.

It is now located
in the middle of the Mediterranean, its target listed as "for order"
meaning it is waiting for its next destination, according to the website
MarineTraffic. Rabiei said the sale and delivery of the oil would go ahead
despite the ship being tracked by the United States. "The destination is
determined by the owner of the oil," the Iranian government spokesman
said, according to state television. He accused the United States of
"constantly monitoring" the tanker and threatening other countries
not to receive it. "This is more evidence for America's interference at
the global level," he said. - Agencies