A meeting was held this morning between world leaders on the final day of the G7 summit in France.
In a joint statement issued earlier, G7 leaders called for “an immediate ceasefire” in Lebanon.
“In Lebanon, we support, through an immediate robust ceasefire, the Lebanese leadership’s efforts to achieve the disarmament of Hezbollah. the monopoly of arms, and to protect Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty with the appropriate international security guarantees,” the statement said.
The G7 leaders’ statement described the announcement of a US-Iran deal to end the Middle East war as a “historic opportunity”. a “breakthrough”.
The statement signed by the leaders of the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada said:
double quotation mark We welcome the announcement of a deal between the United States. Iran, secured under the strong leadership of President Trump, with the support of mediating countries, which provides 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.”
It also added that an initiative led by the UK. France can help to reopen the strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic, but it cautioned that further negotiations were needed “ to address the threats posed by Iran in the region and beyond”.
A meeting was held this morning between world leaders on the final day of the G7 summit in France.
In a joint statement issued earlier, G7 leaders called for “an immediate ceasefire” in Lebanon.
“In Lebanon, we support, through an immediate robust ceasefire, the Lebanese leadership’s efforts to achieve the disarmament of Hezbollah. the monopoly of arms, and to protect Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty with the appropriate international security guarantees,” the statement said.
The Canadian prime minister. Mark Carney, has described the US-Iran memorandum of understanding to end hostilities in the Middle East as a “gamechanger”.
“Not just for this situation … it allows us –. this is what’s happened in the meeting – to step back and look anew at Ukraine,” he told CNN on the final day of the G7 summit in France.
Carney said he has seen a copy of the tentative deal struck between Washington. Tehran, which reportedly calls for the immediate lifting of the US naval blockade on Iranian ports and the reopening of the strait of Hormuz.
“I have to say, it’s exceeded my expectations,” he said.
The terms of the deal have not been made public. Carney did not disclose how he was able to see a copy other than saying “we have our sources”.
He said the deal “sets the groundwork to ensure Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon,” adding: “The Rubicon. if I can use that metaphor, has been crossed.”
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
Iran’s military has threatened to respond to Israel after strikes in southern Lebanon killed four people, despite an agreement being reached between Tehran. Washington to end the Middle East war, including in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported Israeli warplanes targeting the southern town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa. a drone strike in Ansariyeh on the coast this morning. There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on the reports.
In an update yesterday, the IDF said it intercepted “several rockets” launched by Hezbollah towards its troops operating in southern Lebanon,. that it struck and destroyed the launcher.
Hezbollah has not issued any recent statements claiming attacks on Israeli targets in southern Lebanon. The group’s leader, Naim Qassem, is due to make a televised address today, according to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV.
The Iranian military’s central command Khatam al-Anbiya said Israel must halt its acts of aggression in the south or face “a harsh response” from its forces. It accused Israel of violating the ceasefire in Lebanon “84 times” since the deal was announced.
Iran’s top diplomat. foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said a peace deal with the US would require Israel to withdraw from Lebanon. “Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war. the war has not fully come to an end,” he said.
Concerns have been growing that Israel could undermine diplomatic efforts to finally end the Middle East war, with Donald Trump criticising his ally. war partner as irresponsible.
“Israel has been fighting Hezbollah for too long and too many people are being killed,” Trump said. “You don’t need to knock down an apartment house when you are looking for somebody because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses,. they are not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you.”
A US-Iran deal aimed at ending the Middle East war will be signed at Switzerland’s mountainside Burgenstock resort on Friday. the Swiss foreign ministry confirmed to AFP. The site, located near Lucerne in central Switzerland, is difficult to access and therefore easily secured. It “was proposed by the Pakistani. Qatari mediators, as well as by the US and Iran”, Switzerland’s foreign ministry said.
Two months of final negotiations will begin immediately after the initial deal between the US and Iran is signed. Negotiations will continue for a 60-day window after the ceremony, officials told AFP, leading to a plan for the lifting of economic sanctions. decisions on the fate of Iran’s nuclear programme.
Trump said that he would send the deal with Iran to the US Congress for a review. “I like the idea. send it to Congress please,” he said at the start of a meeting with the UAE president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the sidelines of the G7 summit. “I mean who wouldn’t approve it.”
Speaking at the G7, Trump has said the strait of Hormuz will be open by Friday. that the full text of the peace deal will be released in a “formal setting”. Trump also said he expects the “second stage” of the deal “to go quickly”.
The US will allow Iran to immediately start selling oil. fuel again as part of the deal to end the war, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Iran can only sell oil if they keep to the terms of the deal, as US official told Reuters. It includes the free flow of navigation in the strait of Hormuz and not obtaining an nuclear weapon.
An Iranian deputy foreign minister said the two-month US naval blockade on Iranian ports had been lifted ahead of the planned formal signing of a deal ending the war. “The lifting of the blockade was something we had emphasised from the outset. It has now begun,. the blockade has been lifted prior to the formal signing” scheduled for Friday, said Iranian deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi, according to the government’s website.
Qatar, a key mediator between the US. Iran, said it believed the framework peace agreement could deliver security to the Middle East. “We are cautiously optimistic that the signing of the memorandum of understanding will lead to the next phase of regional security through the talks that will take place on the nuclear programme. on other issues,” foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari told reporters in Doha, as he praised Pakistan’s mediation efforts.
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