US President Donald Trump will leave the G7 summit in Canada early due to escalation in the Middle East. His planned meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky is now in doubt.
Trumpʼs early departure was announced by White House spokeswoman Caroline Levitt.
"Much was accomplished, but because of what’s going on in the Middle East, President Trump will be leaving tonight after dinner with Heads of State," Levitt wrote.
The G7 summit was supposed to last until June 17, which is when Trump was supposed to leave. The second day of the summit will focus on supporting Ukraine, Bloomberg notes. It was expected that Trump would meet with Zelensky and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on that day. On the first day of the summit, the US president held meetings with the leaders of Britain, Japan, and Canada.
Despite this, CNN, citing sources, writes that Trump will not sign a joint G7 statement calling for de-escalation between Israel and Iran. The draft statement includes wording that Israel has the right to self-defense and Iran should not obtain nuclear weapons.
What preceded
On the night of June 13, Israel attacked the center of Iranʼs nuclear, missile, and military infrastructure.
In order to neutralize Iranian air defenses, Mossad established a UAV base on Iranian territory long before the attack. They were launched simultaneously even before the attack began.
After the large-scale Israeli shelling, Iran announced that it would not participate in negotiations with the United States on its nuclear program, scheduled for June 15.
In the evening of the same day, Iran launched several waves of ballistic missiles at Israel. This was in response to the IDF attack on Iranian military and nuclear facilities. Later, the Israeli Air Force announced that it had carried out strikes on defense facilities in Tehran on the night of June 14. Israeli aircraft hit dozens of targets, including anti-aircraft missile infrastructure.
On the night of June 15, the countries continued to trade blows. Israel attacked the headquarters of the Iranian Ministry of Defense in Tehran and nuclear program facilities. And on June 16, the state broadcaster IRIB was hit.
- Israelʼs operation against Iran is expected to last "weeks, not days," US and Israeli officials told CNN. The US has reportedly backed it behind the scenes. A White House official said the US administration was aware of Israelʼs plans and privately supported them.
- Trump said on June 15 that peace between Israel and Iran would be "very soon." He said that numerous calls and meetings were currently underway. Neither the Iranian nor Israeli sides commented on the US presidentʼs statement. A few hours earlier, Iran had said it was ready to stop the attacks — if Israel did.
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