President Trump said he would “certainly agree” to meeting with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, and he even suggested offering short-term loans to help the country weather its current economic difficulties.

Mr. Trump was responding to an overture by President Emmanuel Macron of France, who said he would try to set up a meeting in the next few weeks in an effort to resolve the intensifying conflict between Washington and Tehran. The meeting would be the first between American and Iranian leaders since the Tehran hostage crisis of 1979.

Go deeper: Mr. Trump embraced global diplomacy over go-it-alone confrontation yesterday, but there were still significant differences between the seven countries’ approaches.

Context: Tensions between Tehran and Washington have flared since Mr. Trump abandoned the 2015 global nuclear agreement with Iran last year and imposed damaging sanctions.