EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France (AP) — Leaders at the Group of Seven summit on Wednesday threw their support behind U.S. 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.
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 subsidized products, unfairly out-competing their own industries and destroying jobs. Leaders of India, South Korea, Kenya and Brazil also joined the meeting.
The U.S. 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.
But first, Trump finds himself trying to quell skepticism about the Iran agreement that U.S. and Iranian officials are set to formally sign at a ceremony on Friday at a stunning resort on Switzerland’s Lake Lucerne. He also faces jitteriness from key ally Israel about ending the conflict under these terms.
“Here’s what it says: Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. It won’t have one to buy, to develop — it will not have a nuclear weapon. And I would say that’s about 99.9% of what I wanted,” he said.
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 defang 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 meeting in the Alps said that an international maritime mission led by France and the U.K. “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 Feb. 28.
White House and Iranian officials have sometimes offered contradictory interpretations of what is in the agreement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, would violate the deal.
“Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end,” Araghchi said.
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.
Meanwhile, Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he did not think an attack on Hezbollah by Israel would necessarily sink the agreement, though he said he was “not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah.”
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.
Trump on Wednesday is also expected to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a choppy moment in the U.S.-India relationship, in part because of the war in the Middle East.
The leaders’ meeting comes just a week after three Indian sailors were killed in a U.S. military strike on a tanker in the Gulf of Oman in the midst of the American blockade targeting oil shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The Indian Foreign Ministry has formally protested the incident.
Trump and Modi had a warm relationship during the U.S. president's first term, but it's become more complicated since Trump's return to office.
The president hiked tariffs on India, before lowering them, over its reliance on cheap Russian oil, and the Iran war has disrupted energy supplies to India. There's some angst as well in New Delhi that Trump's recent efforts to forge a trade truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping could undercut India’s appeal as an alternative manufacturing hub.
Trump was also holding one-on-one talks on Wednesday with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, one of the three Middle Eastern leaders who are attending the summit at the invitation of Macron.
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 defense 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 multibillion 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.”
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Madhani reported from Geneva. AP writers John Leicester in Evian-les-Bains, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Collin Binkley in Washington contributed reporting.
