EVIAN-LES-BAINS (France) (AFP) – President Donald Trump on Monday told allies the US would not need “much help” in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, as he attended a G7 summit meeting of leading powers in France dominated by questions over his deal with Iran to end the Middle East war. Trump arrived in the spa resort of Evian-les-Bains for the summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, flush from celebrating his 80th birthday by watching MMA cage fighting at the White House the previous night.
But allies have a list of questions for Trump on his deal, impatiently waiting for the Strait to be reopened and global energy prices to fall. Macron faces a delicate balancing act in hosting the often unpredictable US leader. The New York Post newspaper reported that Trump is threatening to slap a 100-percent tariff on French wine and champagne unless Paris removes a digital services tax.
The Strait of Hormuz will be “completely open” from Friday after demining is completed, Trump said at the start of bilateral talks with Macron ahead of the summit opening. But to Macron’s apparent surprise, he also said: “I don’t think we are going to need much help” on keeping the Strait open, after London and Paris proposed a joint naval mission. Macron had said earlier that France and the UK were “ready to act very quickly” on the Hormuz mission.
There has also been controversy over potential Iranian fees on vessels using the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran insisting it would charge what it described as maritime service fees and said they should not be described as tolls. But Macron told TF1 television: “We defend international law and we will do everything in our power to ensure there is no toll.” “There shouldn’t be any tolls or anything that would enrich those in power” in Iran, he added. The details of the US-Iran agreement have not been disclosed publicly. Macron said the accord had been signed “electronically” with additional annexes yet to be “finalised” on Friday.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the emir of Qatar, and the president of the United Arab Emirates will be present for a special session on Iran Tuesday. A parade of world leaders will take place over the next three days, with France keen to expand the reach of the G7 beyond its membership of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States, with the likes of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also present. A vast security lockdown is in place, mobilising thousands of police and troops, an operation that extends to neighbouring Switzerland where protesters clashed with police on Sunday.
The European leaders and Canada will also be keen to remind Trump of the importance of pushing Russia to accept a peace on Ukraine’s terms, more than four years after the invasion of its neighbour. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday urged a “decisive and substantive” response from the G7 leaders after the latest wave of Russian strikes that killed at least 11 people and sparked a fire at a landmark Kyiv cathedral. He revealed he had proposed a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the G7, but that Moscow was “not ready” for it.
But Trump, who spoke by phone to both Zelensky and Putin, said that “maybe we can do something” on Ukraine at the G7. “They’re both open to it,” he said. Unusually, Trump is to extend his stay in France by dining with Macron at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris on Wednesday after the G7 finishes. Macron insisted that the meal will not be a “gala dinner” and acknowledged that Trump “needed to stay to the end” of this G7, unlike the previous edition in Canada where the American president walked out early.
© 2024 AFP
