Trump discusses Iran, North Korea with France’s Macron
President Trump on Saturday talked with French President Emmanuel Macron about the demonstrations erupting across Iran, as well as developments on the Korean Peninsula, according to the White House.
Trump spoke with the French leader “to provide an update on developments on the Korean Peninsula, and to underscore American, South Korean and international resolve to achieve the complete denuclearization of North Korea,” according to a readout of the call.
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The phone call came on the same day that the president signaled a willingness to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“Sure, I always believe in talking,” Trump said Saturday, later saying, “absolutely I would do that, no problem with that at all.”
He added that he would like to see North Korea participate in the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea.
“I’d like to see them getting involved in the Olympics and maybe things go from there. So I’m behind that 100 percent,” the president told reporters at Camp David, ahead of reported talks this week between South Korea and North Korea.
Trump had previously insisted that he would not take part in any talks with Pyongyang unless Kim agreed to stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons, after a series of missile and nuclear weapons tests escalated tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.
The two world leaders also found common ground over the protests erupting across Iran, with scores of people demonstrating against the country’s clerical leadership and the state of the economy.
“The Presidents also agreed that the widespread demonstrations in Iran were a sign of the Iranian regime’s failure to serve its people’s needs by instead diverting the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism and militancy abroad,” according to the readout.
Trump has repeatedly voiced support of the protests while slamming Iran for funding terrorist organizations.
“Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching!” Trump tweeted in late December.
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