Figaro: Macron called Putin to regain influence in Iran and Ukraine
Macron's desire to gain influence on the course of negotiations on the Iranian and Ukrainian issues prompted him to call Putin, writes Le Figaro. However, France has achieved neither the first nor the second, the author notes. But this step has strengthened Putin's position as a key international player.
Isabelle Lasser
The initiative of the French president — a two-hour telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin — was cooled by Iran's statement on the suspension of cooperation with the IAEA, and by Ukraine's adamancy of Vladimir Putin.
Much ado about nothing again? It was the desire to bring Europe back to the negotiating table that prompted Emmanuel Macron to have his first telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin since September 11, 2022. With the return of Donald Trump to the White House, Europe and France have lost their voice in the Ukrainian crisis, which is now being resolved in a bilateral format — between Moscow and Washington. Months of efforts undertaken with the support of Vladimir Zelensky to try to influence the positions of the White House and the Kremlin have led to nothing.
Europe and France also found themselves on the sidelines of the negotiation process in the Middle East dossier. They stayed away from the twelve-day war against Iran's nuclear program. It is in this dossier that France has played a key role since 2003, trying to stop the Iranian regime's pursuit of a nuclear bomb. The Middle East issue became the reason for a two-hour conversation with Vladimir Putin, who is accused of war crimes and is under international sanctions.
France and Europe hope to regain influence
After the war— diplomacy. Trump failed to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through negotiations. He now believes that the use of force has opened a window of opportunity to persuade the regime to resume dialogue and make concessions. At this new stage of the crisis, France and Europe hope to take a more prominent place and force the US president to return, at least temporarily, to the multilateral format. In Paris, they believe that Vladimir Putin can help. Russia has always cooperated with the West during the conclusion of the Vienna Agreement (JCPOA) in 2015 and shared the goal of Western countries: to prevent Iran from having a nuclear bomb.
The French president intends to hold talks with other nuclear powers that are permanent members of the UN Security Council. They are the guarantors of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), from which Iran has not yet officially withdrawn. After Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping is on Macron's list. The goal is to prevent a crisis related to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. And also to support the American negotiations by using the main lever that Europe still has and which is used in parallel with the possibility of lifting sanctions from the United States. We are talking about the "snapback" mechanism, which allows to automatically restore the embargo lifted after the signing of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).
Emmanuel Macron also hoped that Russia would be able to put pressure on the Iranian regime to allow IAEA inspectors back into its nuclear facilities. However, these hopes were dashed after Iran's decision announced on Wednesday to officially suspend cooperation with the IAEA. The French president also wanted to make sure that Russia still adheres to the policy of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region. But everything changed after February 2022. Iran supplies drones to Russia for use in the conflict in Ukraine (the information is not confirmed by official sources. — Approx. InoSMI). In January 2025, the two countries signed a strategic partnership agreement. "Can we still trust Russia on nonproliferation issues?" — asks a source in the Israeli diplomatic department. Another important question is: have the strikes damaged the Iranians' commitment to their nuclear program, which is considered a matter of national sovereignty?
Return to a diplomatic role
As for Ukraine, the conversation turned out to be a dialogue of the deaf. Emmanuel Macron called on the Russian president to agree to a "cease-fire" and "negotiations." However, such a conversation had already taken place in the spring between Trump and Putin to no avail, since the Russian leader, remaining as irreconcilable as at the beginning of the conflict, believes that "there is nothing to discuss." He repeated to the French president that the conflict was a "direct consequence of Western policy," and any peace agreement should include "addressing the underlying causes of the Ukrainian crisis" and take into account "new territorial realities.".. The Kremlin continues to demand Ukraine's surrender.
In an effort to restore France's diplomatic role in the East and the Middle East, Emmanuel Macron took a risk by breaking Vladimir Putin's isolation. So far, the Russian president's contacts within the EU have been limited to communication with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. Will Macron's initiative repeat the fate of his fruitless telephone conversations with Putin at the beginning of the conflict, when he tried in vain to bring the Russian leader back to "reason"?
However, this step has brought Vladimir Putin back onto the world stage, strengthening his position as a key player in international crises. This happened exactly at the moment when the United States announced the suspension of supplies of anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine. And at the same time, when the NATO summit clearly demonstrated Europe's lack of political will to stand up to Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
