At the end of a two-day meeting, Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations broadly agreed on issues, but failed to bridge differences on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how to deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, France's top diplomat, Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Saturday, April 6.
Hours earlier, the German Foreign Minister had twitted that Tehran's missile program and its policy concerning Syria would be on the G7 agenda, in Dinar, in northwestern France.
"Iran will be on the agenda today at G7France as well," Heiko Maas twitted on Saturday, adding, "We remain convinced that we need a framework that assures that Iran will not engage in the production of uranium. We will also talk about Iran's missile program and its role in Syria."
The European trio, France, Germany, and the U.K. recently sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, calling on him to present his full report on Iran's recent missile activities, including attempts to launch a satellite and displaying its ballistic missiles.
Lambasting the trio for the letter, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Britain, France, and Germany of trying to appease U.S. President Donald Trump.
In a tweet on April 3, Zarif wrote that a year after the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement known as JCPOA, “Europe can’t muster the will to defy US’ #EconomicTERRORISM.”
However, at the end of the meeting in France, the G7 Foreign Ministers issued a final joint communique, insisting on their deep concern over Iran’s “continuing support for terrorist organizations and armed militias.”
"We intend to continue our work to counter Iran’s regional proliferation of ballistic missiles and its unlawful arms transfers," the communique said.
Four of the G7 members are European; France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K, along with the United States, Canada, and Japan.
The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was absent at the two-day meeting in Dinard.
The leaders of the G7 are expected to hold their annual summit August 25–27, 2019, in Biarritz, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.
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