G7 leaders say Iran war is a ‘catastrophe’ but the US isn’t listening

European members of the G7 have warned ahead of a key summit on Thursday that the US and Israel’s war against Iran is having a devastating impact on the global economy.

Foreign ministers from the group of seven leading industrialized nations, whose core members include the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, will meet in France for a two-day summit with wars in Iran and Ukraine on the agenda.

European leaders and ministers have issued warnings about the impact of the war on the eve of the meeting, where they are expected to encourage the United States to move away from Iran. However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to attend the summit only on Friday.

This comes at a time when there is apparent stalemate over a possible ceasefire and the threat to ground troops is potentially escalating.

“To be clear, this war is a disaster for the world economies,” German defense minister Boris Pistorius said early Thursday.

“European partners and Germany have emphasized from the beginning that we were not consulted before. Nobody asked us before. This is not our war.” he told reporters During his visit to Australia.

International energy prices have soared since the conflict was initiated by the United States and Israel in late February; Energy infrastructure in Iran and neighboring Gulf states has been destroyed or damaged as a result of US-Israeli airstrikes and Iranian retaliatory strikes.

Tehran’s near-complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime passage through which a fifth of global oil and gas supplies normally flow, has severely restricted global energy supplies; The European Union leader made the following warning: The situation was “critical”.

French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said on Wednesday that the world now faces a conflict whose “nature has changed and therefore its economic consequences have also changed”.

“Today, 30 to 40 percent of the refining capacity in the Gulf was damaged or destroyed. I spoke with the Minister of Energy of Qatar. [Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, who said] “Following the attacks on these facilities, 17 percent of the gas production capacity was destroyed and it will take years to restore this – we are talking about three years.”

Even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the so-called Trump whisperer, described the crisis in the Middle East on Wednesday as a crisis that “concerns everyone and, if it continues over time, can clearly have economic and social consequences that will affect more countries, starting with the African continent, the most vulnerable.”

The latest G7 meeting, which will include representatives from the EU as well as guest delegations from Saudi Arabia, Brazil, India, South Korea and Ukraine, took place at a time when Washington was looking for an outlet to go to war.

Minister Donald Trump and the White House insisted this week that the United States was in talks with senior – but unnamed – Iranian officials and said it was proposing a peace plan to Tehran through intermediaries.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reportedly He told state media on Wednesday that officials were examining America’s proposal to end the war, but that Tehran had no intention of meeting with the United States.

Araghchi added that the exchange of messages between the two countries through mediators “does not amount to negotiations with the United States,” Reuters reported.

Later, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic would reject the US ceasefire offer, instead responding with a 5-point list that would give Tehran control over the Strait of Hormuz.

Further clouding the picture of potential peace talks, the United States is reportedly planning to make reference to peace talks. thousands more soldiers to the area where it could be quickly deployed for possible additional military action. This includes: Capture the Kharg Island oil port or reopening the strait in case negotiations are disrupted.

Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammed Bagher Galibaf, Commented on X on Wednesday intelligence suggested that “Iran’s enemies” were planning to invade “one of the Iranian islands” with the support of an unnamed country in the region.

G7 members, who have been largely excluded from peace efforts, appear to have little influence on Washington’s stance and intentions on Iran, especially after Trump scolded his allies for refusing to assist the United States with its military operations.

“I think NATO made a very stupid mistake,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last week. “And I’ve been saying this for a long time, I wonder if NATO is going to be on our side. So this was a big test, because we don’t need them, but they should have been there.”

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte reportedly He ruffled some feathers in Europe last weekend when he praised Trump in an interview with CBS and suggested that the US’s European NATO allies would move in that direction. “get together” “To respond to the President’s call, to secure free passage through the Strait of Hormuz”.

European leaders have signaled their reluctance to participate in what they see as a war of choice rather than necessity. Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, summed up this sentiment last week when she said, “This is not Europe’s war. We did not start the war. We were not consulted.”