G7 leaders say Iran is ‘principal source of instability' in Middle East
G7 leaders have described Iran as 'the principal source of regional instability and terror' as conflict rages in the Middle East.
The conflict between Israel and Iran has been top of the agenda at the leaders' summit, taking place in Canada.
In a statement agreed at the summit, leaders of the world's major economies, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, said they 'affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself'.
The statement, agreed before Donald Trump left the conference early on Monday evening, also includes a call for a 'ceasefire in Gaza'.
It said: 'We, the leaders of the G7, reiterate our commitment to peace and stability in the Middle East.
'In this context, we affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself. We reiterate our support for the security of Israel.
'We also affirm the importance of the protection of civilians.
'Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror.
'We have been consistently clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.
'We urge that the resolution of the Iranian crisis leads to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza.
'We will remain vigilant to the implications for international energy markets and stand ready to coordinate, including with like-minded partners, to safeguard market stability.'
On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on X that Mr Trump would be leaving the summit early, following a dinner with heads of state.
'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,' she said.
Downing Street declined to comment on Mr Trump's early exit.
Iran said at least 224 people had been killed in the country since strikes began on Friday, while Israeli officials said 24 people had been killed and more than 500 injured.
The back-and-forth between Israel and Iran has raised concerns about all-out war between the rival nations.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Trump and Sir Keir finalised a US-UK deal that will slash trade barriers on goods from both countries, but leaves the future of tariffs on British steel up in the air.
The Prime Minister said the move marked a 'very important day' for both sides as the US president announced the agreement was 'done' in a joint appearance on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada.
The deal will grant British carmakers a reprieve by the end of June as levies drop from 25% to 10%, while the aerospace sector will face no import taxes.
But tariffs for the steel industry, which is of key economic importance to the UK, will stand at 25% for now rather than falling to zero as originally agreed. This is less than the US global rate of 50% for steel and aluminium.
The Prime Minister described the pact as a 'sign of strength' in the transatlantic relationship, while Mr Trump praised Sir Keir as a 'friend' who had done a 'great job' securing the deal that eluded leaders before him.
Following the hastily arranged meeting, the two leaders posed for pictures outside the G7 venue with the signed documents, which the US president dropped before Sir Keir picked them up.
Mr Trump also mistakenly referred to the pact as a 'trade agreement with the European Union'.
The Department for Business and Trade said the two leaders had pledged to 'make progress towards 0% tariffs on core steel products as agreed'.
Asked whether Britain would be shielded from future tariffs, Mr Trump said the UK was protected 'because I like them'.
'The UK is very well protected, you know why? Because I like them. That's their ultimate protection,' he said.
The PM told the US President: 'Donald, thank you very much… A really important agreement. And so this is a very good day for both of our countries, a real sign of strength.'
The terms of the deal were agreed in May, but neither Washington nor London had yet taken the necessary steps to reduce tariffs.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South Wales Argus
8 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Russian missile and drone barrage kills 15 and injures dozens in Ukraine
Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 others were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-storey residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. It was one of the deadliest attacks on the Ukrainian capital in recent months and came as two rounds of direct peace talks have failed to make progress on ending the war, now in its fourth year. A Russian drone attacks a building during Russia's massive missile and drone air attack in Kyiv (Efrem Lukatsky/AP) Also, Russian drone strikes in the southern port city of Odesa killed one person and injured 17 people, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the regional administration. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack 'one of the most terrifying strikes on Kyiv' and said Russian forces fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine overnight. Russian President Vladimir Putin 'is doing this simply because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to go on. It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it', Mr Zelensky wrote. The Kyiv City Military Administration said in a statement that 'the nature of the damage is direct hits on residential buildings. Rockets — from the upper floors to the basement.' The attack lasted nearly nine hours and is the latest in a spate of mass drone and missile attacks on Kyiv. It occurred as world leaders convened at the Group of Seven meeting in Canada, which Mr Zelensky is expected to attend. The summit runs through Tuesday. Interior minister Ihor Klymenko told reporters at the scene that a US citizen was killed in the attack after suffering wounds from shrapnel. Explosions could be heard for hours throughout the night on Tuesday. Thirty apartments were destroyed in a single residential block after it was struck by a ballistic missile, Mr Klymenko said. 'We have 27 locations that were attacked by the enemy. We currently have over 2,000 people working there, rescuers, police, municipal services and doctors,' he told reporters at the scene of one of the attacks. Rescuers run to a shelter to hide from a Russian air raid (Efrem Lukatsky/AP) Olena Lapyshniak, 49, said she was shaken after the attack that nearly levelled her apartment building. She heard a whistling sound and then two explosions that blew out her windows and doors. 'It's horrible, it's scary, in one moment there is no life,' she said. 'There's no military infrastructure here, nothing here, nothing. It's horrible when people just die at night.' People were wounded in the city's Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts. Kyiv mayor Vitalii Klitschko said fires broke out in two other city districts as a result of falling debris from drones shot down by Ukrainian air defences. Canada, which assumed the presidency of the G7 this year, invited Mr Zelensky to the summit, where he is expected to hold one-on-one meetings with world leaders. He was set to meet with US President Donald Trump in Canada on Tuesday, though the White House announced that Mr Trump would return unexpectedly to Washington on Monday night instead of Tuesday night because of tensions in the Middle East. Russia has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks. Moscow escalated attacks after Ukraine's Security Service agency staged an audacious operation targeting war planes in air bases deep inside Russian territory. Little progress has emerged from direct peace talks held in Istanbul, with the exception of prisoner exchanges, expected to conclude next week, Mr Zelensky said.
Glasgow Times
8 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Work to get US steel tariffs removed to go on in coming ‘days, weeks and months'
US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer signed off a US-UK deal that will slash trade barriers on goods from both countries at the G7 on Monday. But US tariffs for the steel industry will stand at 25% for now rather than falling to zero as originally agreed. This is less than the US global rate of 50% for steel and aluminium. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the UK Government is keen for the site to be part of a commercially-operated business (Chris Radburn/PA) The two leaders pledged to 'make progress towards 0% tariffs on core steel products as agreed', the Department for Business and Trade said. The Chinese ownership of the British Steel could be a sticking point in the deal on steel as the executive order signed by Mr Trump suggests the US wants assurances that the metal originates in the UK. 'The United Kingdom also committed to working to meet American requirements on the security of the supply chains of steel and aluminium products intended for export to the United States and on the nature of ownership of relevant production facilities,' the order states. After signing it, the US President was asked whether steel tariffs would be eliminated, to which he replied: 'We're gonna let you have that information in a little while.' In April, the UK Government used emergency powers to take control of British Steel and continue production at the site after Chinese owners Jingye proposed shutting the Scunthorpe site's two blast furnaces and other key steelmaking operations. But its future is still uncertain, with Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander saying the Government is eager for it to be 'part of a commercially-operated business with private investment'. 'We're talking to a number of third parties about that. At the moment, no options are off the table,' she told Sky News. She said there was still 'more work to do' to get steel tariffs eliminated, including on 'technical detail'. 'We're working through some technical detail around steel because we want to bring that 25% tariff that applies at the moment obviously down further,' she told BBC Breakfast. She said the UK is 'working on getting that implemented'. 'And we're determined to go further and we'll be working on those issues around steel in the coming days, weeks and months,' she added. Alasdair McDiarmid, assistant general secretary of the Community union, said it was 'absolutely vital' to secure a deal on steel as quickly as possible. Mr Trump did not say when the tariffs would be eliminated (Suzanne Plunkett/PA) 'Our steel producers and their US customers need an end to the current state of uncertainty to allow normal business to resume. 'Crucially, we must see a full exemption for all UK steel exports to the US – without that guarantee some of our leading steel businesses could be left behind, with a threat to jobs and livelihoods.' It comes as a £500 million five-year deal has been struck between Network Rail and British Steel, which Ms Alexander said was a 'vote of confidence'. Workers at the British Steel site in Scunthorpe will make rail tracks (Danny Lawson/PA) British Steel is to supply 337,000 tonnes of rail track, with a further 80-90,000 tonnes to be provided by other European manufacturers. The Network Rail contract will start on July 1 and is set to provide the company with 80% of its rail needs. Jingye, which bought British Steel in 2020, launched a consultation in March which it said would affect between 2,000 and 2,700 jobs, despite months of negotiations and a £500 million co-investment offer from the Government. The Scunthorpe plant has been producing steel for Britain's railways since 1865. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is finalising the deal (Joe Giddens/PA) The Network Rail agreement is the first major public procurement since the Government's emergency legislation was passed. Network Rail's group director for railway business services Clive Berrington said: 'We are committed to buying British where it makes economic sense to do so and British Steel remain extremely competitive in the provision of rail and will remain our main supplier in the years ahead.' Craig Harvey, British Steel's commercial director for rail, added: 'The contract represents a huge vote of confidence in UK workers and British industry, underpinning the vital role we play in ensuring millions of passengers and freight operators enjoy safe, enjoyable and timely journeys on Britain's railways.' Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, national officer at the GMB union, said it was a 'crucial first step in securing the future of our steel industry' and urged ministers to make sure British Steel has a 'constant flow of orders' from other infrastructure projects.
Spectator
11 minutes ago
- Spectator
The good and bad news about the UK-US trade deal
Donald Trump and Keir Starmer's transatlantic trade deal has finally been signed. Before making an early exit from the G7, the US president approved an executive order giving legal effect to parts of the US-UK deal. The outline of the agreement was settled weeks earlier during a conference call, with Trump in the White House and Peter Mandelson, the UK ambassador in Washington, standing, slightly creepily, over his shoulder, as Starmer dialled in from 4,000 miles away. If the deal is to progress further, an almighty row could be brewing The delay in any further announcement left conservatives, and businesses, wondering whether the deal outline a month ago was turning into a fiction. But the executive order Trump signed on Monday gives effect to the agreement at the end of the month. There are, however, some changes to what had originally been trailed one month ago. Tariffs on UK car exports to the United States (the UK's biggest goods export) will come down from 27.5 per cent to 10 per cent. But the 100,000 limit on the number of cars we can export to the US effectively puts a cap on growth within that part of the industry, as we already export roughly that amount of cars anyway. There was a bonus announcement too with Britain's aerospace sector exempted from even the baseline 10 per cent tariffs. It was bad news for steel, though. The agreed reduction of tariffs from 25 per cent to zero was absent from the president's executive order. Civil servants working on the deal say talks are ongoing, with disputes remaining over quotas on the amount of steel we'd be allowed to send before steeper tariffs kick in. Fingers crossed. There also seem to be complications surrounding Chinese ownership of British steel – something the Americans clearly don't like. Trump wasn't his best as he announced the singing of the deal alongside Starmer outside the G7 meeting in Canada. A slip of the tongue led him to say the deal was with the EU, rather than the UK. He then managed to drop the papers everywhere before Starmer helped pick them up. The Prime Minister fared better with Trump saying: 'He's slightly more liberal than I but for some reason we get along.' The deal finally being given legal effect by the president is clearly good news for Britain and undeniably a Brexit win. Had the UK had a closer relationship with the EU we'd be lumped in with the higher tariffs they're having to put up across all goods; we'd also get carried along with any retaliatory measures imposed by Brussels. These might please voters but they are, in reality, economic self harm. We shouldn't pretend this deal is more than it is though. This is not a wide-ranging free trade agreement – something which the government says it is still striving towards – but measures that mitigate the tariffs Trump unleashed on the world on his 'liberation day' in April. We are certainly better of, both compared with much of the world and with when those tariffs were initially announced. But we are still in a worse position than at the start of the year. What's also clear is that the White House is calling the shots. They feel under no pressure to further the deal with us and will only sign incremental steps as and when it suits them. If the deal is to progress further, an almighty row could be brewing. One of the aspects of global trade that reportedly enrages Trump is how much Americans – and American hospitals – pay for drugs, even those produced domestically. The NHS, as a single buyer purchasing in bulk on a massive scale, secures medicines at far lower prices. Trump sees that as unfair. He can't do much to force companies to lower prices for US customers, but he can try to push them up for the UK. Indeed, documents released after the agreement was outlined in May say the NHS will 'look at the concerns of the president' on this issue. But it's hard to see how any British Prime Minister or Health Secretary could agree to anything that increases NHS costs – politically or fiscally. This aspect of the deal may be flying under the radar for now, but it could well stop further progress towards free trade in its tracks.
