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Iran Snubs Macron’s Offer to Mediate Washington-Tehran Nuclear Talks

A picture released by Iran's Foreign Minister on Twitter of Zarif as he held talks in Biarritz with France's President Macron and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
A picture released by Iran's Foreign Minister on Twitter of Zarif as he held talks in Biarritz with France's President Macron and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
    Paris, Tehran – Michel Abu Najm, Asharq Al-Awsat
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Iran Snubs Macron’s Offer to Mediate Washington-Tehran Nuclear Talks

A picture released by Iran's Foreign Minister on Twitter of Zarif as he held talks in Biarritz with France's President Macron and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
A picture released by Iran's Foreign Minister on Twitter of Zarif as he held talks in Biarritz with France's President Macron and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Tehran has rejected French President Emmanuel Macron’s offer to be an honest broker in talks between Iran and the US. The rejection follows demands by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for the European Union to mediate between Washington and Tehran.

“The nuclear deal has no need for a mediator,” foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters without specifically mentioning France, but in response to a question about recent comments by the country’s president.

Khatibzadeh also insisted that there was no need to renegotiate the nuclear deal.

“When a document is written with such precision and length it means that it is not necessary to discuss it again… It is all there in more than 150 pages,” he said of the deal officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The spokesman added that European states must themselves return to their commitments under the nuclear deal with Iran.

On Feb 1, FM Zarif asked the European Union to coordinate a synchronized return of both Washington and Tehran into a nuclear deal, after a diplomatic standoff on who will act first.

Zarif’s request came a few hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Iran could now produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon within "a few months."

Macron offered Thursday to be an "honest broker" in talks between the United States and Iran in order to revive a 2015 nuclear deal which was torpedoed by ex-president Donald Trump.

“I will do whatever I can to support any initiative from the US side to re-engage in a demanding dialogue, and I will... try to be an honest broker and a committed broker in this dialogue,” Macron told the Atlantic Council think-tank.

The French leader had tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to persuade Trump to stay in the 2015 pact.

Some believe that Macron’s offer to mediate between Washington and Tehran comes to erase his earlier failure.

But Zarif has specifically asked for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to play the mediatory role between Washington and Tehran due to his position as coordinator of the 2015 agreement.

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Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Halts Russian Troop Advance in Sumy Region

A resident walks at a street near a building damaged by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
A resident walks at a street near a building damaged by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
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Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Halts Russian Troop Advance in Sumy Region

A resident walks at a street near a building damaged by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
A resident walks at a street near a building damaged by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova

Ukrainian forces have stopped Russian troops advancing in the northeastern Sumy region and are now battling to regain control along the border with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

In remarks released for publication by his office on Saturday, Zelenskiy said that Moscow has amassed about 53,000 troops in the direction of Sumy, Reuters reported.

"We are leveling the position. The fighting there is along the border. You should understand that the enemy has been stopped there. And the maximum depth at which the fighting takes place is 7 km (4.35 miles) from the border," Zelenskiy said.

Russia's troops have been focusing their assaults in the eastern Donetsk region. But since the start of the month, they have intensified their attacks in the north-east, announcing plans to create a so-called 'buffer zone' in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.

The Russian war in Ukraine is in its fourth year, but it has intensified in recent weeks.

Ukraine conducted an audacious drone attack this month that took out multiple aircraft inside Russia and also hit the bridge connecting Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula using underwater explosives.

Moscow ramped up its air assaults after the attack.

Zelenskiy said that Ukrainian troops had maintained their defensive lines along more than 1,000 kilometres of the frontline. He also dismissed Moscow's claims that Russian troops had crossed the administrative border into the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk.

Zelenskiy said that Russia was sending small assault groups "to get one foot on the administrative border" and make a picture or a video, but these attacks were repelled.

Dnipropetrovsk borders three regions that are partially occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Russia now controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.

Zelenskiy acknowledged that Ukraine was unable to regain all of its territory by military force and reiterated his pleas for stronger sanctions on Russia to force Moscow into negotiations to end the war.

Two rounds of peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul produced few results that could lead to a ceasefire and a broader peace deal. The two sides agreed only to exchange prisoners of war.

Several swaps have already been conducted this month, and Zelenskiy said he expected them to continue until June 20 or 21.

In separate remarks made on communications platform Telegram on Saturday, he said that a new group of Ukrainian prisoners of war had come home as part of another swap with Russia.

"We continue to take our people out of Russian captivity. This is the fourth exchange in a week," Zelenskiy wrote on his personal account.

Ukrainian officials responsible for exchanging prisoners said the vast majority of the soldiers released in the exchange had been held captive since 2022 with many captured during the defence of Mariupol.

The officials said Kyiv had, meanwhile, received the bodies of 1,200 of its soldiers killed in the war with Russia. The bodies were handed over to Ukraine on Friday.

"The agreement is that the exchanges will be completed, and the sides will discuss the next step," Zelenskiy said.