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

The statement says Donald Trump ‘has delivered a deal that we support in reopening the strait of Hormuz’. Photograph: Ukrainian presidential press office/UPI/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen The statement says Donald Trump ‘has delivered a deal that we support in reopening the strait of Hormuz’. Photograph: Ukrainian presidential press office/UPI/Shutterstock Trump backs G7 leaders’ call for wider talks on Iranian missile programme Joint statement welcomes Trump’s deal with Iran to end war and calls for further talks involving European leaders Europe live – latest updates 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 before the dinner: “Versailles is not just gold-plated. It’s the real deal.” Iran is bound to reject the proposal for further talks involving European leaders about its ballistic missiles and support for proxy forces. 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, chaired by 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 on which he has been acting unilaterally, 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 memorandu