TORONTO — Diplomats from the world’s seven leading democracies met Sunday in Toronto to discuss ways to counter Russia in Syria and Ukraine, and Iran in the Middle East.
At the forefront of the two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven, or G-7, are mutual concerns about Russia. The sharpest focus is on Syria, where Moscow’s support has turned the tide of the civil war in favor of President Bashar Assad.
Toronto marks the first high-level talks between the United States, France and Britain since the three nations conducted airstrikes on Syrian facilities last weekend in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack on civilians by Assad’s military.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who arrives in Washington on Monday on a state visit, said Sunday that the United States and its allies have a continuing role to play in Syria for some time.
“The day we will finish this war against ISIS, if we leave, definitely and totally, even from a political point of view, we will leave the floor to the Iranian regime, Bashar al-Assad and his guys, and they will prepare the new war,” he said on “Fox News Sunday,” using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State militant group. “They will fuel the new terrorists.”
The G-7 diplomats spent Sunday discussing the recent events in the Middle East, the Korean Peninsula, Ukraine, Venezuela and the fate of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Acting secretary of state John Sullivan held a separate meeting with his counterparts from France, Britain and Germany to discuss European efforts to craft a supplemental agreement. President Trump has threatened to walk away from the Iran nuclear treaty on May 12 if his objections are not addressed, including “sunset” clauses in the JCPOA that phase out restrictions on Iran over time.
Before Sullivan and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson held a closed-door meeting, Johnson was overheard saying, “One of the things we are concerned about now is the JCPOA and where that is headed.”
The G-7 comprises the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan. Russia used to be a member, but it was suspended from the exclusive club after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Russia’s activities in Ukraine and elsewhere since then have served as a reminder of the G-7’s original purpose. The group, an outgrowth of the vision of former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger, was formed in 1975 to stand up for the values of open democracies and liberty. Now, with the West and Russia in their most confrontational period since the end of the Cold War, the G-7 has united to push back against its former member.
It condemned the use of what it suspects was a Russian nerve agent against a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. And it issued a strong statement of support for the allied airstrikes in Syria barely a week ago.
Sullivan is representing the United States because CIA Director Mike Pompeo has not yet been confirmed as a replacement for Rex Tillerson, who was unceremoniously fired from his position as secretary of state last month.
John Kirton, director of the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto, where the summit is being held, considers Pompeo’s absence a lost opportunity to brief key allies on his face-to-face talks over Easter with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“Mr. Trump should have ordered him to come here as CIA director,” Kirton said. “In a very small room, when it’s only seven of you and one more American, you forget job titles. It’s not too late. The president can still find a plane to get him.”
The heads of state of the seven countries will meet in June, also in Canada.
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