Iranian President Hasan Rohani waits for the bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the UN headquarter on September 24, 2019, in New York.

:: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that his US counterpart Donald Trump needed to restore trust before the possibility of a meeting.

“We must create mutual trust,” Rouhani told Fox News, which Trump regularly watches after the US leader criticized Iran before the UN General Assembly.

“If the government of the United States of America is willing to talk, it must create the needed conditions,” he said.

Macron meets Iran’s Rouhani after seeing Trump

France’s President Emmanuel Macron met Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday, shortly after holding talks with US President Donald Trump, a French presidential official said.

Macron, who had already met Rouhani for 90 minutes on Monday night, is trying to defuse tensions between Washington and Tehran in the hope of opening a negotiation between the two sides as well as regional and international powers.

France, Germany urge Rouhani to meet Trump

Macron said it would be a lost opportunity if the Iranian President left the United States without meeting US President Trump, according to a UK press pool report.

“What is important is that if he leaves the country without meeting with President Trump, this is a lost opportunity. Because he will not come back in a few months. And President Trump will not go to Tehran so they have to meet now,” Macron said during a meeting with Rouhani and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Johnson concurred, according to the report, saying: “I think I agree with Emmanuel. You need to be on the side of the swimming pool and jump at the same time.”

The leaders are attending the annual United Nations General Assembly this week in New York.

The United States last year abandoned Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers and has since raised economic pressure on Tehran in an effort to force it to further curb its nuclear program as well as restrain its missile program and regional activities.

Iran has ruled out bilateral talks with the United States unless it returns to the terms of the 2015 deal, meaning that Washington would have to ease its economic sanctions on Tehran.