G7 leaders meet as Israel-Iran conflict escalates

Leaders from the world’s seven largest developed economies are travelling to the Canadian mountain community of Kananaskis, Alberta, on Sunday as the conflict between Israel and Iran escalates and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine continue to rage despite international efforts to end them.

Israel’s war in Gaza, where more than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023, was always expected to be discussed by the G7 leaders, but their attention is now likely to shift to Israel and Iran.

“Given how things have escalated and how people are expecting it to escalate, that will be the core focus of at least the first day,” Julia Kulik, director of strategic initiatives for the G7 Research Group, which is affiliated with the University of Toronto, told The National.

EditorialG7 summit can push for an end to Iran-Israel conflict

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Israel launched attacks on Iran’s capital on Sunday, hitting several locations in central Tehran. This came after both sides launched attacks on Friday and Saturday night in the heaviest fighting between the two rivals to date, steering the region perilously close to a wider conflict.

Israel has said it is trying to ensure that Iran is never able to develop a nuclear weapon and has fired on its military and nuclear bases. But according to Human Rights Activists, a Washington-based organisation, more than 400 people have been killed since Israel first fired on Iran on Thursday.

Israel said 14 of its people had been killed and 400 were injured since the hostilities began.

"Our wonderful combat pilots are in the skies above the burning city of Tehran,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. “We are determined to complete the mission of removing the double threat."

The Israeli leader added that Iran was planning to “destroy all of us”.

"This is a war," said Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director at the International Crisis Group. "We don't know whether it would take a few days or a few weeks, but this is a war.”

The escalating tension effectively scuttled nuclear talks between the US and Iran that were supposed to take place over the weekend in Oman.

International leaders are trying to rein the two sides in. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to several Middle East leaders on Sunday, saying that Israel's attacks could “drag the whole region into the fire”.

While the remote Rocky Mountains could not be further removed from Israel and Iran, it is likely to host a series of consequential discussions on the subject as the leaders look for ways to de-escalate the situation.

Mr Vaez said he did not expect the G7 to yield any significant movement towards peace, in part because of the countries‘ refusal to criticise or condemn Israel's acts of aggression against Tehran.

"All it does regardless of the outcome of this conflict is that it further undermines the G7 credibility as a group that is supposed to uphold the international norms based system," Mr Vaez told The National.

The Iran expert said the group has failed to apply the same approach it took to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine as it has with Israel's against Iran.

The leaders' summit will serve as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's debut on the world stage. The newly elected leader said he hopes to focus on issues including strengthening peace and security; energy security; accelerating the digital transformation; and securing partnerships for the future.

The meeting comes as tensions between the US and Canada remain high after US President Donald Trump's economic tariffs and repeated threats of making Canada the "51st state."

The last time Canada hosted the G7, in 2018, Mr Trump famously left early and attacked then prime minister Justin Trudeau for being "very dishonest and weak".