G7 Opens in the Shadow of Iran Deal and Ukraine Strikes
Leaders gathered in Évian-les-Bains as a tentative U.S.-Iran agreement promised relief for energy markets, while Russia’s new attacks on Ukraine and damage to a historic Kyiv monastery kept war at the center of the summit.
The Group of Seven summit opened with rare diplomatic momentum and deep unease. A reported U.S.-Iran framework to halt the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz gave leaders a possible path away from a wider Middle East crisis, but it also exposed tensions over how much Washington had acted alone and how much remains unresolved around sanctions, nuclear limits and regional proxies.
Ukraine arrived with its own emergency. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had offered to meet Vladimir Putin at the G7, while Kyiv reported deadly Russian missile and drone strikes that damaged the UNESCO-listed Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. The result was a summit defined by the same question on two fronts: whether diplomacy can outrun the wars already reshaping the world.
