Trump backs G7 leaders’ call for wider talks on Iranian missile programme

Donald Trump has backed a joint G7 leaders’ statement that welcomes the deal he has struck with Iran but says a follow-on agreement is necessary to rein in Iran’s ballistic missile programme, an issue not directly addressed in the memorandum of understanding that is due to be signed on Friday by Iran and the US.The statement says future negotiations with Iran would benefit from the involvement of a wider group of regional and international actors including the UN nuclear weapons agency, the IAEA.Trump is facing severe criticism including from some of his domestic supporters for conducting a war against Iran that has ended in a negotiated deal that has met hardly any of its original objectives.He is due to attend a banquet in Versailles on Wednesday evening to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s independence. Trump said ahead of the dinner: “Versailles is not just gold-plated. It’s the real deal.”The proposal for further talks involving European leaders about Iran’s ballistic missiles and support for proxy forces is bound to be rejected by Iran. Tehran has been negotiating exclusively with the US and regards Europe as largely irrelevant. Iran is also likely to reject France and Britain’s plan for a taskforce to escort ships through the strait of Hormuz, a proposal endorsed in the G7 leaders’ statement.On Ukraine, the G7 leaders hailed the battlefield momentum and called for fresh pressure against Russia through sanctions and additional arms deliveries to Kyiv.The G7 meeting in Évian-les-Bains, under the chairship of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, brings together the world’s most powerful economies: the US, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada and Japan.The joint statement issued on Wednesday morning suggests Trump unusually has been willing to go some way to accommodating concerns of other leaders on issues that he has been acting unilaterally on, particularly in the cases of Iran and Ukraine.The leaders also said: “We consider this the right moment to proceed with additional measures, as President Trump has delivered a deal that we support in reopening the strait of Hormuz.”The deal reopens the strait and reiterates Iran’s opposition to possessing nuclear weapons but postpones talks on how to dilute or destroy its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Trump has said he is open to the stockpile being diluted inside Iran under the supervision of the IAEA.The memorandum agrees to immediately lift US sanctions on Iran’s oil exports and a raft of related industries, , and to create a $300bn reconstruction fund. The US has said it need not contribute to the fund financially.The G7 leaders said the agreement, due to be signed by on Friday in Switzerland, provided “an historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon and tackling the threats related to its regional and ballistic activities. We support and are ready to contribute to its implementation.”Reaffirming the right of transit passage without restrictions or tolls as a bedrock of international trade, the leaders said: “The multinational, independent and defensive initiative led by France and the UK can play an important role to facilitate the resumption of maritime traffic in the strait of Hormuz.”The initiative would protect merchant vessels, reassure commercial shipping operators and support verification that all mines are removed, the leaders said.As many as 40 countries have expressed a willingness to contribute to the mission, and the initiative is designed not to be an offensive operation, implicitly requiring Iran’s consent. Trump has said he is not sure the mission is necessary and most mines have been located.The G7 leaders stated they “strongly support a robust and comprehensive diplomatic follow-on agreement to the memorandum of understanding secured by President Trump that can bring peace and security for all in the region”, implying that the memorandum of understanding is considered too narrow.Europe has been excluded from the talks the US has conducted with Iran since Trump became president, with some claiming the stretched and relatively small US negotiating team have lacked the expertise to match an Iranian side with deep knowledge of nuclear issues, which is also strengthened by the chokehold they have kept on commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz.Final leaked versions of the memorandum of understanding circulating at the G7 make no reference to Iran’s ballistic missiles or its support for proxy groups in the region such as Hezbollah.On Lebanon, the G7 statement calls for an immediate robust ceasefire and backs the Lebanese leadership’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah. It calls for Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty with the appropriate international security guarantees.The statement proposes that to accelerate new momentum in Ukraine, “we agree to increase the delivery of air defence capacities, additional systems and interceptors, and long-range capabilities. We are also ready to consider extending to Ukraine the benefit of licenses to allow for an increase in Ukraine’s military production.”Promising to help Ukraine get through next winter, the statement commits to increase the pressure on the Russian war economy by strengthening sanctions, including those on the oil and gas sectors.