If President Donald Trump's bid to negotiate with North Korea's Kim Jong Un is a work in progress — three meetings to date and no breakthrough — his suggestion of face time with Iran's leader appears dead on arrival.
Iranian officials ruled out Trump talks with President Hassan Rouhani, who rejected a photo-op and said the U.S. must lift sanctions first.
Rouhani faces a different domestic landscape to Kim and has to be more responsive to public pressure with parliamentary elections due in February. Iranians are suffering with an economy creaking under U.S. penalties reintroduced after Trump withdrew from the international nuclear deal, and politicians in Tehran are divided over whether to engage with Washington.
There are perils for Trump too, from angering stridently anti-Iran allies in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia and Israel — where Benjamin Netanyahu faces a tough repeat election next month — to Republicans who view Tehran as an arch-enemy of the U.S.
That's not to say there isn't pressure on Iran to find some face-saving way back from the brink.
For now, Iran joins other short-lived diplomatic breakthroughs to emerge from the Group of Seven summit, from a trade deal with China that now appears as distant as ever to aid for the Amazon rejected by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
— Karl Maier
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