and europe is divided. so it has to be that the stewardship of this comes from washington and i think there is broad recognition that is what is happening. emmanuel macron has suggested the e.u. should have sideline talks or have its own talks with moscow and that is been taken into something as a snub but i think this is what the french president would suggest. the real stumbling block in europe at the moment is the divisions within the european union countries and the nato members and that is really germany. there has to be pressure and focus on germany if the u.s. wants to have the german, the new german government on board. it is testing a lot of fractious moments because you have a new government in germany, you have macron who is heading into elections and boris johnson who is in a whole heap of leadership problems of his own back in the u.k. and this is the kind of situation that suits vladimir putin very well. and that, ben, seems to be
upset by it. reporters when asked about it, mr. trumped answered with a clipped no comment. cnn s international diplomatic ed tort nic robertson is live this hour in southern france. he joins us now. so, nic, the big question has to be, what were the french hoping to achieve by inviting iran s foreign minister to the g7 summit for those sideline talks? what was their intent exactly? reporter: well, i think if we sort of look at this from the perspective from the broad perspective, if you re in the white house you think that macron is trying to skew the events at the g7 to favor him, and if you re macron, you will be looking at this thinking you re trying to tidy up some of the mess that president trump has created because that is the feeling that it has particularly in europe, that it is the united states that has created these additional tensions with iran and no one s stepping in to bring those tensions down and this is what emmanuel macron has been trying
getting worse, although zarif s visit could open the door to possible sideline talks. hassan rouhani said he s willing to hold talks with the united states, but there s one big condition. translator: we are always ready for negotiations. this in this very hour, in this moment, we are ready for talks, provided that you stop your act of aggression, stop your sanctions and return to the negotiation table and return to logic. mr. rouhani says that because the trump administration abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal last year, iran is not violating it, even though they re enriching more uranium. france, germany and the uk are warning the deal is at risk of total collapse. they re urging the u.s. and iran to come back to the negotiating table as soon as possible. at the cricket world cup, england has made history. george, when i lived there, i have to tell you this was