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

Donald Trump said of his deal with Iran: ‘There is nothing as smart as the market and the market loves it.’ Photograph: Ukrainian presidential press office/UPI/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Donald Trump said of his deal with Iran: ‘There is nothing as smart as the market and the market loves it.’ Photograph: Ukrainian presidential press office/UPI/Shutterstock I’ll resume bombing if Iran acts up, Trump warns after criticism of deal At G7 meeting in France, president angrily rejects suggestions US will contribute to $300bn fund for Iran Europe live – latest updates Donald Trump has responded to criticism of his ceasefire deal with Iran , warning at the G7 summit that he was prepared to go back to dropping bombs and insisting the deal did not require the US to pay even 10 cents to Iran. At the same time, he has backed a G7 leaders’ joint statement that welcomes the deal 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 G7 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 under attack, 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. At a side meeting at the French-hosted G7 meeting in Évian-les-Bains on Wednesday, he promised that if Iran misbehaved he would “go back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head”. He angrily rejected suggestions that the US would be contributing to a $300bn investment fund for Iran but did not deny its existence, instead saying payouts by Gulf states were likely to be conditional on Iran’s good behaviour. “Anyone who wants to can invest. What do you expect me to say, ‘no one is allowed to invest’? But we’re not investing; we’re not putting up even 10 cents,” he said. “If they want to [others], they can make this investment. What should I say, ‘no one can ever invest in this country’?” He added: “I don’t think the Gulf countries will do this for a while, until they see Iran’s behaviour; this is a matter of behaviour.” Praising the deal he had struck and claiming no previous US president had been as tough on Iran as him, he said: “There is nothing as smart as the market and the market loves it. “The alternative would be a worldwide depression,” he said, arguing that if he had not struck a deal, “the strait [of Hormuz] would never have been opened. They don’t like floating billion-dollar ships up and down the strait when their rockets are flying overhead and there are mines all over the place.” He claimed the price of oil per barrel had fallen to $72 – Brent crude dipped below $80 on Tuesday – and would soon fall below the level it had been at before the war. The G7 proposal