BIARRITZ, France: Iran’s foreign minister paid a visit to a G7 summit in France on Sunday, an unexpected twist to a meeting already troubled by differences between US President Donald Trump and Western allies over a raft of issues, including Iran.
A White House official said France’s invitation to Mohammad Javad Zarif for talks on the sidelines of the gathering in the southwestern beachside town of Biarritz was “a surprise.”
Zarif met his French counterpart to assess what conditions could lead to a de-escalation of tensions between Tehran and Washington, a French official said.
Zarif also saw French President Emmanuel Macron during his brief stay, but the White House official said the Iranian minister did not meet any US officials before he flew out of Biarritz airport.
European leaders have struggled to calm a deepening confrontation between Iran and the United States since Trump pulled his country out of Iran’s internationally brokered 2015 nuclear deal last year and reimposed sanctions on the Iranian economy.
Earlier on Sunday, Trump appeared to brush aside French efforts to mediate with Iran, saying that while he was happy for Paris to reach out to Tehran he would carry on with his own initiatives.
Macron has taken the lead in trying to defuse tensions, fearing that a collapse of the nuclear deal could set the Middle East ablaze. He met Zarif on Friday ahead of the G7 summit to discuss ways of easing the crisis, including reducing some US sanctions or providing Iran with a compensation mechanism.
Iran wants to export a minimum of 700,000 barrels per day of its oil and ideally up to 1.5 million bpd if the West wants to negotiate with Tehran to save the 2015 deal, two Iranian officials and one diplomat told Reuters on Sunday.
However, Trump’s fellow G7 leaders failed on Saturday to persuade the US president to reissue oil sanction waivers that were granted last year to some buyers, but which came to end in May, a European diplomat familiar with the discussion said.
Trump, a turbulent presence at last year’s G7 gathering, insisted on Sunday that he was getting along well with other leaders of a group that also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
But rifts emerged on issues from his intensifying trade war with China to the nuclear ambitions of both Iran and North Korea, and the question of whether Russian President Vladimir Putin should be readmitted to the group.
Russia was excluded from what used to be the G8 in 2014 after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimea and then backed an anti-Kiev rebellion in the industrial region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine.
A European official who declined to be named said Russia was the thorniest issue discussed over dinner on Saturday.
“(The conversation) became a bit tense over this idea of the G7 being a club of liberal democracies ... that point was clearly not shared by the US president,” the official said.
Trump’s argument was that on a number of issues, like Iran and Syria, it made more sense to have Putin involved in the talks given that Russia is a key player there.
New British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday congratulated Macron for hosting a difficult encounter.
“You’re doing well,” Johnson said on the sidelines of the summit. “You did very well last night, my God, that was a difficult one, you did really, you did really well.”
The G7 gathering is taking place against a backdrop of worries that a global economic downturn could be exacerbated by the escalating tariff war between Washington and Beijing.
Britain’s Johnson voiced concern on Saturday about creeping protectionism and said those who support tariffs “are at risk of incurring the blame for the downturn in the global economy.” Sitting across from Trump on Sunday, he said: “We’re in favor of trade peace on the whole, and dialling it down if we can.”
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned other leaders of the dangers of protectionism and urged Washington not to carry through on its threat to impose tariffs on German autos.
However, the White House doubled down on its aggressive stance toward trade with China.
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham, explaining what Trump meant when he said earlier on Sunday that he had had second thoughts after announcing more tariff raises on Chinese goods last week, said that he simply regretted not hiking them higher.
Looking to broaden the gathering, Macron invited several African leaders to discuss problems facing their continent, while leaders from India, Australia, Chile and Spain joined the group for dinner on Sunday where the focus was on the environment and other issues.
However, senior US officials accused Macron of looking “to fracture the G7” by focusing on “niche issues” rather than major global concerns.
France denied this, pointing to Sunday’s initial session covering the economy, trade and security — areas that used to draw easy consensus but are now sources of great friction.
Trump up-ended last year’s G7 meeting in Canada, walking out early and disassociating himself from the final communique.
Amid the wrangling this time around, some potential positives emerged, with Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreeing in principle to core elements of a trade deal.
“It’s billions and billions of dollars. Tremendous for the farmers,” Trump said.
However, the two men appeared at odds over North Korea’s series of short-range missile launches.
Trump, who prizes his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said the launches did not violate an agreement and were in line with what others were doing. Abe, sitting across from him, said they breached UN resolutions.
At the start of the day, Trump said Britain would have a major trade deal with Washington after it leaves the European Union. Asked what his advice on Brexit was for Johnson, he replied: “He needs no advice, he is the right man for the job.”
While the transatlantic rift is the most stark, there are also deep divisions within the European camp, with Johnson making his G7 debut at a time when he is struggling to persuade EU capitals to renegotiate Britain’s exit from the bloc, which Johnson has said will happen on Oct. 31 come what may.
Trump caught off guard as Iranian foreign minister Zarif flies in to G7 summit
Trump caught off guard as Iranian foreign minister Zarif flies in to G7 summit
- Iranian foreign ministry says Zarif will not hold talks with Trump and his team
- Earlier Trump dampened down Emmanuel Macron's optimism on Iran talks
Israel commits ‘extermination’ in Gaza by killing in schools, UN experts say
The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel was due to present the report to Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council on June 17.
“We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza,” former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who chairs the commission, said in a statement.
“Israel’s targeting of the educational, cultural and religious life of the Palestinian people will harm the present generations and generations to come, hindering their right to self-determination,” she added.
The commission examined attacks on educational facilities and religious and cultural sites to assess if international law was breached.
Israel disengaged from the Human Rights Council in February, alleging it was biased.
When the commission’s last report in March found Israel carried out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians by systematically destroying women’s health care facilities during the conflict in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the findings were biased and antisemitic.
In its latest report, the commission said Israel had destroyed more than 90 percent of the school and university buildings and more than half of all religious and cultural sites in Gaza.
“Israeli forces committed war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians and wilful killing, in their attacks on educational facilities ... In killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination,” it said.
The war was triggered when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in a surprise attack in October 2023, and took 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
Harm done to the Palestinian education system was not confined to Gaza, the report found, citing increased Israeli military operations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as harassment of students and settler attacks there.
“Israeli authorities have also targeted Israeli and Palestinian educational personnel and students inside Israel who expressed concern or solidarity with the civilian population in Gaza, resulting in their harassment, dismissal or suspension and in some cases humiliating arrests and detention,” it said.
“Israeli authorities have particularly targeted female educators and students, intending to deter women and girls from activism in public places,” the commission added.
Five French activists from Gaza-bound boat to face Israeli justice: France
PARIS: Five French activists aboard a boat carrying aid bound for Gaza that was intercepted by Israeli security forces were set to face an Israeli judge, the French foreign minister said on Tuesday.
“Our consul was able to see the six French nationals arrested by the Israeli authorities last night,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X. “One of them has agreed to leave voluntarily and should return today. The other five will be subject to forced deportation proceedings.”
Israeli navy strikes Yemen’s port of Hodeidah, army radio says
DUBAI: The Israeli navy carried out attacks on Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Israeli army radio said on Tuesday, in an ongoing campaign that usually involves airstrikes.
Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said Israel targeted the docks of Al Hodeidah port with two strikes.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The strikes come after the Israeli military on Monday urged the evacuation of the Houthi-controlled ports of Ras Isa, Hodeidah, and Salif.
Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, the Iran-aligned Houthis have fired at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea in what it says are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones fired toward Israel have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
Israel has severely weakened other allies of Iran in the region — Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The Tehran-backed Houthis and pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq are still standing.
Trump must tell Netanyahu ‘enough is enough’: ex-Israeli PM
- US President Donald Trump should tell Israel’s leader Benjamin Netanyahu “enough is enough,” a former Israeli prime minister told AFP,
PARIS: US President Donald Trump should tell Israel’s leader Benjamin Netanyahu “enough is enough,” a former Israeli prime minister told AFP, denouncing the continuation of the war in Gaza as a “crime” and insisting a two-state solution is the only way to end the conflict.
Ehud Olmert, prime minister between 2006-2009, said in an interview in Paris that the United States has more influence on the Israeli government “than all the other powers put together” and that Trump can “make a difference.”
He said Netanyahu “failed completely” as a leader by not preventing the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas that sparked the war.
He said while the international community accepted Israel’s right to self-defense after October 7, this changed when Netanyahu spurned chances to end the war in March and instead ramped up operations.
Netanyahu “has his personal interests which are prioritized over what may be the national interests,” Olmert charged.
Analysts say Netanyahu fears that if he halts the war, hard-line members of his coalition will walk out, collapsing the government and forcing elections he could lose.
“If there is a war which is not going to save hostages, which cannot really eradicate more of what they did already against Hamas and if, as a result of this, soldiers are getting killed, hostages maybe get killed and innocent Palestinians are killed, then to my mind this is a crime,” said Olmert.
“And this is something that should be condemned and not accepted,” he said.
Trump should summon Netanyahu to the White House Oval Office and facing cameras, tell the Israeli leader: “’Bibi: enough is enough’,” Olmert said, using the premier’s nickname.
“This is it. I hope he (Trump) will do it. There is nothing that cannot happen with Trump. I don’t know if this will happen. We have to hope and we have to encourage him,” said Olmert.
Despite occasional expressions of concern about the situation in Gaza, the US remains Israel’s key ally, using its veto at the UN Security Council and approving billions of dollars in arms sales.
Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants abducted 251 hostages, 54 of whom remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 54,880 people, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, figures the United Nations deems reliable.
Along with former Palestinian foreign minister Nasser Al-Qidwa, Olmert is promoting a plan to end decades of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to create a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.
Both sides would swap 4.4 percent of each other’s land to the other, according to the plan, with Israel receiving some West Bank territory occupied by Israeli settlers and a future Palestinian state territory that is currently part of Israel.
Ahead of a meeting this month in New York co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia on steps toward recognizing a Palestinian state, Olmert said that such a plan is “practical, is doable, is relevant, is valid and is real.”
Olmert spent over a year in prison from 2016-2017 after being convicted in corruption scandals that ended his political career and efforts to forge peace.
A longtime political rival of Netanyahu even though they both emerged from the same Likud right-wing party, he also faces an uphill struggle to convince Israeli society where support for a Palestinian state, let alone land swaps, is at a low ebb after October 7.
“It requires a leadership on both sides,” said Olmert. “We are trying to raise international awareness and the awareness of our own societies that this is not something lost but offers a future of hope.”
Al-Qidwa, who is due to promote the plan alongside Olmert at a conference organized by the Jean-Jaures Foundation think tank in Paris on Tuesday, told AFP the blueprint was the “only game in town and the only doable solution.”
But he said societies in Israel and the Palestinian territories still had to be convinced, partly due to the continuation of the war.
“The moment the war comes to an end we will see a different kind of thinking. We have to go forward with acceptance of the co-existence of the two sides.”
But he added there could be no hope of “serious progress with the current Israeli government and current Palestinian leadership” under the aging president Mahmud Abbas, in office now for two decades.
“You have to get rid of both. And that is going to happen,” he said, labelling the Palestinian leadership as “corrupt and inept.”
UN says most flour delivered in Gaza looted or taken by starving people
- Experts warn Gaza is at risk of famine, with the rate of young children suffering acute malnutrition nearly tripling
- According to World Food Programme guidelines, 4,600 metric tons of flour would provide roughly eight days’ worth of bread for Gaza’s 2 million residents, based on a standard daily ration of 300 grams per person
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations said on Monday that it has only been able to bring minimal flour into Gaza since Israel lifted an aid blockade three weeks ago and that has mostly been looted by armed gangs or taken by starving Palestinians.
The organization has transported 4,600 metric tons of wheat flour into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing, the only entry point Israel allows it to use, Deputy UN spokesperson Fahan Haq told reporters.
Haq said aid groups in Gaza estimate that between 8,000 and 10,000 metric tons of wheat flour were needed to give each family in Gaza a bag of flour and “ease the pressure on markets and reduce desperation.”
HIGHLIGHTS
• US-backed GHF says has given out total 11.4 million meals
• UN calls for more supplies to be let into Gaza
• Gazans at risk of famine
“Most of it was taken by desperate, starving people before the supplies reached their destinations. In some cases, the supplies were looted by armed gangs,” Haq said.
According to World Food Programme guidelines, 4,600 metric tons of flour would provide roughly eight days’ worth of bread for Gaza’s 2 million residents, based on a standard daily ration of 300 grams per person.
Haq called for Israel to let in far more aid via multiple crossings and routes.
The UN has mostly delivered flour along with limited medical and nutrition items since Israel lifted the 11-week blockade in mid-May. Experts warn Gaza is at risk of famine, with the rate of young children suffering acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Israel and the United States want the UN to work through the controversial new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but the UN has refused, questioning its neutrality and accusing the distribution model of militarizing aid and forcing displacement.
Israel and the United States have accused Hamas of stealing aid from the UN-led operations, which the militants deny.
The GHF uses private US security and logistics firms to operate. It began operations in Gaza on May 26 and said on Monday so far it has given out 11.4 million meals.
Israel makes the UN offload aid on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, where it then has to be picked by the UN and aid groups already in Gaza. The UN has accused Israel of regularly denying access requests.
