VAUX-DE-CERNAY, France\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Group of Seven foreign ministers met on Friday in France to discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with deep divisions apparent over the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, following President Trump\u2019s repeated complaints that America\u2019s allies have ignored or rejected requests for help in the military operation and in confronting Iran\u2019s retaliatory attacks, including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to most international shipping.<\/p>\n
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined his counterparts from the G7 just 24 hours after Trump\u2019s latest round of insults lobbed at NATO and as instability in oil markets persisted with the Iran war entering its fourth week along with uncertainty over the status of potential negotiations to end the crisis.<\/p>\n
Most of America\u2019s closest allies have greeted the Iran war with deep skepticism, sentiments that were on display as the G7 foreign ministers met at a historic 12th-century abbey in Vaux-de-Cernay, outside Paris, even as they urged a diplomatic solution to resolve the situation.<\/p>\n
As the diplomats gathered, France\u2019s Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin said the war in the Middle East \u201cis not ours,\u201d adding that the French position is strictly defensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aim is truly this diplomatic approach, which is the only one that can guarantee a return to peace,\u201d she said on Europe 1 and CNews. \u201cMany countries are concerned, and it is absolutely essential that we find a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, meanwhile, said Britain also favored a diplomatic path, acknowledging differences with the United States. \u201cWe have taken the approach of supporting defensive action, but also we\u2019ve taken a different approach on the offensive action that has taken place as part of this conflict,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Rubio already faced difficulties in trying to sell the U.S. strategy for the Iran conflict, but Trump\u2019s vitriolic comments about NATO countries not stepping up to help the U.S. and Israel during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday will likely make it an even tougher task. <\/p>\n
Of the G7 nations \u2014 besides the U.S. \u2014 Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy are members of the trans-Atlantic military alliance. Japan is the only one that is not.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very disappointed with NATO because NATO has done absolutely nothing,\u201d Trump said in comments echoed later by his top diplomat.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankly, I think countries around the world, even those that are out there complaining about this a little bit, should actually be grateful that the United States has a president that\u2019s willing to confront a threat like this,\u201d Rubio said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Rubio, who chatted briefly with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, also still has work to do to smooth things over with allies like those in Europe that have faced criticism or outright threats from Trump and others in his Republican administration. The Europeans are still smarting over Trump\u2019s earlier demands to take over Greenland from NATO ally Denmark and are concerned about U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. The conflict in the Middle East has added another point of tension.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday at the G7 I reiterated that President Trump is committed to reaching a ceasefire and negotiated settlement to the Russia-Ukraine war as soon as possible,\u201d Rubio said in a post on X containing a photo of him meeting with his counterparts.<\/p>\n
Shortly before leaving Washington Rubio told reporters he was not concerned about G7 unhappiness with the Iran war. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not there to make them happy,\u201d he said. \u201cI get along with all of them on a personal level, and we work with those governments very carefully, but the people I\u2019m interested in making happy are the people of the United States. That\u2019s who I work for. I don\u2019t work for France or Germany or Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has complained about lack of support from allies<\/p>\n
Trump has complained that he has not been able to rally support behind his war of choice in Iran and that NATO and most other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran\u2019s chokehold has disrupted oil shipments and pushed up energy prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re there to protect NATO, to protect them from Russia. But they\u2019re not there to protect us,\u201d Trump said Thursday. <\/p>\n
Before the U.S. leader\u2019s comments, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte reiterated the increase in defense spending by alliance members \u2014 which Trump has urged \u2014 saying Europe and Canada had been \u201coverreliant on U.S. military might\u201d but a \u201cshift in mindset\u201d has taken hold.<\/p>\n
Iran has long insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful, and its ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency has said that the United States and Israel\u2019s \u201cjustification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie.\u201d The ambassador, Reza Najafi, has accused the U.S. and Israel of attacking \u201dIran\u2019s peaceful safeguarded nuclear facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
G7 host France has been skeptical of the Iran war<\/p>\n
France is hosting the G7 meeting near Versailles and has been highly skeptical of the war. Besides Vautrin\u2019s comments on Friday, the chief of the French defense staff, Gen. Fabien Mandon, complained this week that U.S. allies had not been informed about the start of hostilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have just decided to intervene in the Near and Middle East without notifying us,\u201d Mandon said, lamenting that the U.S. \u201cis less and less predictable and doesn\u2019t even bother to inform us when it decides to engage in military operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, 35 countries joined military talks hosted by Mandon on how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz \u201conce the intensity of hostilities has sufficiently decreased,\u201d France\u2019s Defense Ministry said.<\/p>\n
Rubio said that with Iran threatening global shipping, countries that care about international law \u201cshould step up and deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similar sentiments to Mandon\u2019s have been expressed by other allies that also worry about the U.S. commitment to Ukraine as the Iran war closes in on four weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must avoid further destabilization, secure our economic freedom and develop perspectives for an end of and the time after the hostilities,\u201d German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Thursday. \u201cOur joint support for Ukraine … must not crumble now. That would be a strategic mistake with a view to Euro-Atlantic security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Lorne Cook in Brussels, John Leicester in Paris and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VAUX-DE-CERNAY, France\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Group of Seven foreign ministers met on Friday in France to discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with deep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15391,2226,40129,42,149244,117780,174659,24932,43,1009,16334,158171,23114,40,38,41,39,627,103765,1032,174658],"class_list":["post-361198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ally","tag-france","tag-g7","tag-headlines","tag-hormuz","tag-iran-war","tag-many-country","tag-nato","tag-news","tag-president-trump","tag-rubio","tag-strait","tag-thursday","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trump","tag-u-s-strategy","tag-united-states","tag-vitriolic-comment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}