(AFP) – Foreign ministers from the G7 meet outside Paris from Thursday with European nations and allies seeking to narrow differences with the US on the Middle East war while keeping other crises like Ukraine and Gaza high on the agenda.
The two-day meeting of seven leading industrialised democracies at the Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey in the countryside outside Paris comes as the White House said President Donald Trump is ready to “unleash hell” if Iran does not accept a deal to end the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic. Making his first trip abroad since the war started, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will join fellow top diplomats from Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan and the UK, but only on the second day.
One of the objectives of France, which holds the rotating G7 presidency this year, is “to address the major global imbalances which explain in many respects the level of tension and rivalry we are witnessing with very concrete consequences for our fellow citizens,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told AFP on Tuesday. With Lebanon pulled into the war as Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel, Barrot also urged Israel to “refrain” from sending in forces to take control of a zone in south Lebanon.
In a bid to broaden the scope of the elite G7 club — whose origins go back to the first G6 summit held in the nearby Chateau de Rambouillet in 1975 — France has also invited foreign ministers from key emerging markets Brazil and India as well as Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. While all G7 nations are close US allies, none have unambiguously offered support for the assault on Iran, angering Trump. German Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil even complained Trump’s “misguided policies” in the Middle East were hitting Germany’s economy.
Trump has claimed the US is speaking to a “top person” within Iran’s clerical system in talks to end the conflict. But Iranian state TV said on Wednesday Tehran had rejected a peace plan conveyed through Pakistan. Trump’s threat to hit Iranian energy facilities — which he is now holding back on amid the purported talks — troubled European allies who have all called for de-escalation and not engaged militarily in the conflict.
British foreign minister Yvette Cooper on Tuesday voiced unease that the war had shifted focus away from the Gaza peace plan and violence in the occupied West Bank. Over four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Barrot told AFP that support “for the Ukrainian resistance” and pressure on Russia would continue.
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