AP
Evian-les-Bains (France)
Leaders at the Group of Seven summit on Wednesday threw their support behind US President Donald Trump’s tentative agreement with Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and further extend a shaky ceasefire — even though he’s offered scant specificity about how that would be implemented.
In a declaration issued overnight, the leaders called the deal a “historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon and tackling the threats related to its regional and ballistic activities.” The leaders said that they were “ready to contribute to its implementation,” although neither the White House nor Iran has released the text of the agreement.
According to leaked copies of an interim agreement, Iran will immediately take steps to reopen the Strait of Hormuz once the deal is signed and will be allowed to sell its oil without restrictions. Officials say the leaked text broadly matches the document.
The accord, due to be formally signed in a ceremony in Switzerland on Friday, lays out that the US would work to end all American and United Nations sanctions imposed on Tehran if a final agreement addressing Iran’s nuclear program is reached.
Trump, however, said the deal is still under wraps. He was speaking at a one-to-one meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
“Nobody knows what it is but it’s very strong,” he told reporters. He added: “It’s a memorandum of understanding and if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs.”
The final day of summit talks started late with Trump, the last to arrive, saying “I’m the boss” as he entered the room and sat next to host French President Emmanuel Macron. The assembled leaders laughed, and Trump grinned.
The G7 leaders were closing the formal talks of the leading industrial democracies at a lakeside resort in the French Alps on Wednesday with sessions on the future of artificial intelligence and fostering economic growth.
They discussed concerns that China is flooding export markets with subsidised products, unfairly out-competing their own industries and destroying jobs. Leaders of India, South Korea, Kenya and Brazil also joined the meeting.
The US leader later plans to make a stop for a glitzy dinner at the Palace of Versailles outside of Paris before he jets back to Washington.
While G7 leaders gave it their backing, Trump still has to sell the deal to some members of his own party who doubt it will de-fang Iran’s nuclear program. At the same time, he faces an anxious international community looking for him to follow through on his promise that the deal will reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic, and keep it open.
The leaders said that an international maritime mission led by France and the UK “can play an important role to facilitate the resumption of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz by protecting merchant vessels, reassuring commercial shipping operators, and supporting verification that all mines are removed.”
Before the Iran war, a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passed through the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime chokepoint that Iran has effectively shuttered since the first days of the conflict that began on February 28.
The deal also calls for an immediate end to all fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah. That is one of the most delicate parts of the agreement because Israel has maintained it will continue to defend itself and to occupy vast swaths of Lebanon. Iran has said Israel must withdraw under the deal, although the leaked versions make no mention of withdrawal.
In their declaration, G7 leaders said they supported “through an immediate robust ceasefire” Lebanese efforts to disarm Hezbollah, and protect Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed nearly 4,000 people, including hundreds of civilians, and displaced more than 1 million since fighting there began on March 2. “Israel’s fighting Hezbollah too long, and too many people are being killed,” Trump said.
In a flurry of declarations issued in the early hours of Wednesday, the G7 leaders stressed their support for Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion and agreed to increase deliveries of air defence systems. They also said they would bolster sanctions on Moscow, including on Russia’s oil and gas industries.
Leaders also pledged to step up the fight against the multi-billion dollar international drug trade. The statement comes as Trump has been waging his own battle against drug traffickers.
United States military strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats transiting in Latin America have killed more than 200 people since September, when the Trump administration began an operation it has justified as necessary to stem the flow of drugs.
Critics have questioned the legality of the strikes.
In a separate declaration, the G7 leaders reaffirmed their efforts to halt migrant smuggling and human trafficking, which they said “constitute serious transnational crimes that erode the sovereign right of States to control their borders and expose smuggled and trafficked persons to life-threatening risks.”
