EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump wraps up talks with world leaders at the Group of Seven summit on Wednesday where he's been trying to sell his tentative agreement with Iran as a pact that will ensure the Islamic Republic never develops a nuclear weapon — even though he's offered scant specificity about how that would be implemented.
Trump and his fellow leaders are closing the formal talks of the leading industrial nations
at a lakeside resort in the French Alps on Wednesday with sessions on the future of artificial intelligence and fostering economic growth.
The U.S. leader also 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, a difficult task given that neither the White House nor Iran have released the text of the deal. He also faces jitteriness from key ally Israel about ending the conflict under these terms.
“It’s a great document,” Trump said of the memorandum that has yet to be revealed, even though U.S. and Iranian officials are set to formally sign it at a ceremony on Friday at a stunning resort on Switzerland's Lake Lucerne.
“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.
But Trump will continue to have to do a sales job. Some members of his own party are doubtful that the deal he's agreed to is strong enough to 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.
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.
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.”
“It just goes on forever,” he said of Israel’s strategy. Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed nearly 4,000 people, including hundreds of civilians, and displaced more than 1 million since 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.
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 will also hold 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 its host, French President Emmanuel Macron.
The G7 leaders met on Tuesday with el-Sissi as well as Qatar's ruling emir and the president of the United Arab Emirates for a working lunch. They discussed developing energy supply routes out of the Gulf, including via Egypt.
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.
“Part of the discussions were, ‘OK, how can we imagine, finance, and build infrastructures, sometimes on the terrestrial part, that will be able to go outside of the track of the Strait of Hormuz?’” French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said in an interview.
Trump on Tuesday didn't hide his giddiness over Macron's plans to fete him at the Palace of Versailles to mark America's 250th anniversary next month.
He said the opulent setting for the one-on-one dinner was a factor in his decision to extend his stay after the summit.
The palace was the residence of French kings from the time of Louis XIV to Louis XVI. It regularly hosts heads of state and foreign dignitaries.
“I’m a fan of beautiful places, and I was leaving in the afternoon, and then the French president who happens to be a very nice man, invited me to dinner at Versailles,” Trump said. “And Versailles is not gold leaf — Versailles is the real deal. And I said I’d like to do it.”
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Madhani reported from Geneva. AP writers John Leicester in Evian-les-Bains, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, and Collin Binkley in Washington contributed reporting.
