France’s Macron says he’ll ask Trump to suspend some Iran sanctions

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that he will ask President Trump to ease some sanctions against Iran to aid negotiations between the U.S. and Tehran amid ongoing tensions.

“I want to convince Trump that it is in his interest to re-open a negotiation process [and] go back on certain sanctions to give negotiations a chance,” Macron told reporters while traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto, according to Reuters

{mosads}The French president, who will join Trump in Japan this weekend for the Group of 20 summit, said he would aim to establish parameters for negotiations on issues including Iran’s role in the Middle East and its potential nuclear development.

“We’d give ourselves a few months,” Macron said, according to Reuters.

Trump and Vice President Pence have both expressed willingness to meet with Iranian leaders with no preconditions, although both have said they will not allow the nation to develop nuclear weapons.

Tensions have increased between the two nations for the past few months, with Trump reportedly canceling at the last minute a planned strike in retaliation for Iran shooting down a drone it claimed was in its airspace.

Iran recently announced it would scale back some of its nuclear commitments under the Obama-era nuclear deal, a year after Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the deal altogether.

On Monday, Trump announced additional U.S. sanctions against Iran extending to its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said some of the sanctions had already been in development while others were the result of unspecified “recent activities.”