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Trump at G-7 Optimistic About Deals with China, Japan, Iran

Patsy Widakuswara

   SAINT-JEAN-DE-LUZ, FRANCE - G-7 leaders are closing their summit Monday
   with discussions about the climate and digital transformation, though
   those issues are likely to be overshadowed by a closing joint news
   conference with U.S. President Donald Trump and French President
   Emmanuel Macron.

   Trump grabbed early headlines Monday as he expressed optimism to
   reporters for trade deals with China and Japan, as well as prospects
   for an agreement with Iran.

   Those comments came while Trump sat next to Egyptian President Abdel
   Fattah El-Sissi in what is usually a brief encounter with reporters
   before leaders go into a private meeting. Trump took questions for
   about 10 minutes.

   Trump downplayed any sense of tension between himself and French
   President Emmanuel Macron, after the French leader met Sunday with
   Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

   "I knew he was coming in, and I respected the fact that he was coming
   in," said Trump, who added that he gave Macron his approval.

   Trump, who withdrew from the international agreement on Iran's nuclear
   deal last year, said new negotiations would include Iran's nuclear
   program and its ballistic missiles. He criticized the length of the
   2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as being too short.

   "Iran has a chance to really build themselves up and be a very great
   nation, greater than before. But they have to stop terrorism," Trump
   said.

   At the summit, Macron introduced a plan to defuse rising tensions in
   the Gulf by partially lifting the U.S. oil embargo on Iran in exchange
   for Tehran's returning to full compliance to the 2015 deal that
   restricts its nuclear program.

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