Israel-Iran: Between voluntarism and suppression by Donald Trump, what role does Emmanuel Macron play in the conflict?

Is France doomed to be a witness? Since the beginning of the conflict between Iran and Israel, Emmanuel Macron has struggled to find his place on the international stage . Caught between Donald Trump and the Middle Eastern powers, both the head of state and the European Union appear to have little influence.

One image alone sums up the situation: this Wednesday, June 25, Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte held a press conference , without any representatives of the old continent at their side.

"We're making a series of statements that have no effect. We get the impression that no one takes French diplomacy seriously anymore, let alone European diplomacy," François Géré, a historian specializing in geostrategy, told BFMTV.

"It's as if we no longer have any instruments of influence," regrets this research director at Paris-3 University.

It's hard to argue with that: the first Israeli strikes that hit the mullahs' regime on June 13 began just as the European Union was trying to find a new agreement on Iran's nuclear program.

In reality, it is the United States that has been negotiating for months with the Mullah regime to prevent the country from acquiring nuclear weapons that could directly target Israel.

In recent days, it was also Washington that managed to conclude a ceasefire between Israel and Iran after having finally opted for strikes on Telehran.

"Donald Trump is moving forward on this issue through force. Diplomacy and respect for international law, embodied in particular by France, appear to have been devalued," observes the Socialist MP and president of the France-Iran friendship group.

"If we can consider that there is legitimacy in neutralizing nuclear structures in Iran given our objectives, there is no legal framework, no," the head of state himself acknowledged on Tuesday during a press conference in Norway .

But Emmanuel Macron still believes it is possible to resolve the crisis "through diplomatic and technical means." And so much the worse if it was indeed Donald Trump's air operations that delayed Iran's nuclear military program by several "decades," as the American billionaire claimed on Wednesday.

"The problem is that today, forceful tactics are more effective than the negotiations we've been conducting with Iran for nearly 20 years. How do we show that diplomacy is still effective? I don't know," admits a former senior official at the Quai d'Orsay.

The situation is all the more complicated as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed a "historic victory" on Tuesday, claiming that US airstrikes had "destroyed Iran's nuclear project."

According to a preliminary confidential US intelligence report, the contents of which were described by sources close to the case to media outlets such as the New York Times , the US bombings did not, however, completely eliminate Iran's stockpiles of enriched uranium, which would eventually make it possible to create nuclear bombs.

The strikes may have sealed the entrances to some facilities without destroying the underground buildings, delaying Iran's nuclear program by only a few months, but not completely destroying it , the reports said.