French President Emmanuel Macron has launched a major diplomatic push in the Middle East, demanding that Washington and Tehran swiftly finalize a bilateral accord to pacify the region and immediately unblock international shipping channels, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The Elysee Palace said on Sunday that Macron conducted a sequence of high-level consultations with key Arab heads of state. The French leader connected with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Omani Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
Macron utilized his social media platforms to summarize his unified diplomatic approach, confirming that he delivered an identical directive to each of the regional sovereign leaders regarding the urgency of the Western-Iranian backchannel talks.
“To all of them, I delivered the same message: it is essential that an agreement between the United States and Iran be reached quickly. This opportunity must be seized now," Macron stated. “The priority must be the conclusion of a ceasefire and the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, without any conditions and in accordance with international law."
According to Macron, securing a cessation of hostilities is merely the first phase of a broader diplomatic roadmap. Once maritime and border stability are achieved, diplomatic teams must transition toward negotiating a more structured treaty to tackle long-term security threats.
“Discussions will then need to continue to achieve a comprehensive and robust agreement on the other issues, particularly on the nuclear and ballistic programs, and regional stability," Macron explained.
Paris is also offering direct operational assistance and strategic resources to enforce these parameters. Macron announced that France is fully prepared to deploy assets to a joint multinational security operation alongside Great Britain to actively protect commercial vessels navigating the volatile waterway, while also providing technical support for future nuclear talks.
“France stands ready to play its full part, by helping to resume maritime traffic through the independent multinational mission established with the United Kingdom, by supporting nuclear discussions with its expertise and capabilities, and by contributing to the necessary establishment of a regional security framework, alongside the partners whose protection it has helped ensure in recent months," Macron wrote.
Macron’s plea comes as talks between the US and Iran, in an attempt to reach an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, are ongoing though no deal has been reached.
On Saturday, an Axios report said that President Donald Trump has requested several targeted modifications to the preliminary diplomatic accord hammered out by American and Iranian negotiators.
The directives were issued during a high-stakes meeting inside the White House Situation Room on Friday, according to the report.
In its original draft, the memorandum of understanding bound Iran to a generalized commitment to forgo the pursuit of a nuclear weapon, but lacked concrete concessions beyond that vow. The existing framework outlines a 60-day diplomatic window to negotiate subsequent nuclear restrictions and corresponding American sanctions relief. The immediate priorities for those future talks were slated to be the disposal of Iran's enriched uranium reserves and caps on future refinement.
The president is now actively seeking to front-load and refine those specific parameters, said the sources cited by Axios.
On Sunday, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Tehran is preparing to submit a fresh round of modifications to a preliminary agreement with Washington following Trump’s demand for stricter conditions in the text.
The media outlet, which maintains close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and hard-line factions within the Iranian government, reported that the indirect negotiation process remains active.
Trump said in an interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, which aired on Fox News on Saturday night that the US will get what it wants from Iran.
Trump added that he is in no hurry to reach a deal with Iran and once again stressed that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
“We've defeated their military, essentially defeated their military. I would rather get a deal because we can open the strait immediately upon signing. The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons," he stressed.