After Netanyahu Talks, Macron Warns of Iran Nuclear 'Consequences'

Philippe Wojazer, AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris on June 5, 2018.
Philippe Wojazer, AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris on June 5, 2018.
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After Netanyahu Talks, Macron Warns of Iran Nuclear 'Consequences'

Philippe Wojazer, AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris on June 5, 2018.
Philippe Wojazer, AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris on June 5, 2018.

French President Emmanuel Macron denounced on Thursday the "headlong rush" of Iran's nuclear program after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Paris to seek a stronger European stance against Tehran.

In a statement released after a dinner meeting in the Elysee Palace, Macron warned that Tehran continuing with the atomic project "would inevitably have consequences".

Israel has long accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while Tehran insists its nuclear program is aimed solely at generating energy, AFP said.

Netanyahu hopes Iran's role in supplying drones to Russian invaders in Ukraine, as well as its crackdown on protests at home, will prompt Western allies to drop any pursuit of a revival of the 2015 atomic program deal.

The prime minister has also said Israel is considering sending military aid to Ukraine, apparently dropping its more neutral stance over the conflict in the hope of securing a more confrontational Western position towards Tehran.

By "playing the Ukraine card", Netanyahu hopes to "consolidate an anti-Iranian front" with the West, said David Khalfa at the Fondation Jean Jaures, a Paris-based think tank.

He hopes for "increased sanctions against Iran and the full addition of the Revolutionary Guards to the list" of sanctioned entities, Khalfa added -- a step both France and Germany have so far resisted.

France agrees that "firmness" is needed in dealings with Iran, a diplomatic source told AFP earlier, saying the nuclear program had reached "a dangerous point" and highlighting Tehran's role in the Ukraine war.

Siding with Ukraine is not without risk for Netanyahu, as Russian air defenses deployed in neighboring Syria could be turned against Israeli aircraft during their occasional raids on Iranian interests there.

- Tensions mount -
Iran also holds several foreign citizens who are considered political hostages by Western governments.

Netanyahu's visit came after a weekend drone attack on a defense ministry facility in the Iranian city of Isfahan, which Tehran has blamed on Israel.

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed officials, have said the attack was carried out by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, though this has not been confirmed by Israel.

Netanyahu visits as violence has intensified between Israelis and Palestinians with Israeli warplanes striking the Gaza Strip early Thursday, drawing Palestinian rocket fire in retaliation.

Last Friday, a Palestinian gunman shot dead seven people outside a synagogue in an Israeli settler neighborhood of annexed east Jerusalem.

It was the deadliest attack targeting Israeli civilians in more than a decade, and came one day after an Israeli raid in the West Bank killed 10 Palestinians.

Macron's office said before the get-together that the French leader would also "reiterate the need for all sides to avoid measures likely to feed the cycle of violence" between Israelis and Palestinians, while offering "France's solidarity with Israel in the face of terrorism".

Staying in France until Saturday, Netanyahu is also set to meet French business chiefs and leaders of the country's Jewish community, the Israeli embassy said.

Judicial reforms planned by the prime minister's latest coalition of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties have raised the hackles of some business executives, notably in the financial sector, who have threatened to quit Israel.



Trade on Agenda as Trump Heads to Scotland for Diplomacy and Golf

 President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP)
President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP)
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Trade on Agenda as Trump Heads to Scotland for Diplomacy and Golf

 President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP)
President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP)

US President Donald Trump departed for Scotland on Friday for a mix of diplomacy, business and leisure, as a huge UK security operation swung into place amid planned protests near his family-owned golf resorts.

The president, whose mother was born in Scotland, is expected to split his time between two seaside golf courses bearing his name, in Turnberry on the southwestern coast and Aberdeen in the northeast.

Air Force One was due to arrive around at 8:20 pm local time (1920 GMT) with the president and White House staff, and Trump has no public events scheduled for Saturday or Sunday, the White House said.

However, he is due to meet with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the trip.

"We're going to do a little celebrating together, because we got along very well," Trump told reporters as he left the White House Friday, calling Starmer "a good guy" doing "a very good job".

He said they would discuss "fine tuning" the bilateral trade deal struck in May, and would "maybe even improve it".

But the unpredictable American leader appeared unwilling to cede to a UK demand for flexibility over reduced steel and aluminium tariffs.

Trump has exempted London from blanket 50 percent tariffs on imports of both metals, but the fate of that carve-out remains unclear.

"If I do it for one, I have to do it for all," Trump told reporters, when asked if he had any "wiggle room" for the UK on the issue.

The international outcry over the conflict in Gaza may also be on the pair's agenda, as Starmer faces growing pressure to follow French President Emmanuel Macron and announce that Britain will also recognize a Palestinian state.

- Protests -

Trump is expected to return to the UK in September for a state visit -- his second -- at the invitation of King Charles III, which promises to be lavish.

During a 2023 visit, Trump said he felt at home in Scotland, where his mother Mary Anne MacLeod grew up on the remote Isle of Lewis before emigrating to the United States at age 18.

Residents, environmentalists and elected officials have voiced discontent over the Trump family's construction of a new golf course, which he is expected to open before he departs the UK on Tuesday.

Police Scotland, which is bracing for mass protests in Edinburgh and Aberdeen as well as close to Trump's golf courses, have said there will be a "significant operation across the country over many days".

Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who will also meet Trump during the visit, said the nation "shares a strong friendship with the United States that goes back centuries".

He added it would provide Scotland with a "platform to make its voice heard on the issues that matter, including war and peace, justice and democracy".

Trump has also stepped into the sensitive debate in the UK about green energy and reaching net zero, with Aberdeen being the heart of Scotland's oil industry.

In May, he wrote on his Truth Social platform that the UK should "stop with the costly and unsightly windmills" as he urged incentivizing drilling for oil in the North Sea.