In the hours ahead of his departure for the annual Group of Seven summit in the French Alpine resort of Evian-les-Bains, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a landmark tentative agreement that he says will bring an end to the 15-week U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran – a deal that reshapes the dynamics of this year’s gathering of world leaders even as it draws immediate skepticism from political opponents and key U.S. allies alike.
For days, both Trump’s team and Iranian officials signaled steady progress toward a negotiated ceasefire. But the road to the announcement remained rocky as recently as Sunday, when fresh cross-border strikes erupted between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants along the Lebanese border. Key details of the agreement remain tightly held: neither the White House nor Iranian authorities have released the full text of the deal, and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi clarified Sunday that Tehran will continue its closure of the Strait of Hormuz until the agreement is formally signed. Pakistan, which served as the primary mediator for the indirect negotiations, confirmed that preliminary pre-implementation talks will kick off this week, setting the stage for 60 days of technical negotiations focused on Iran’s nuclear program.
The last-minute deal hands Trump a key political win as he sits down with G7 leaders, many of whom have openly criticized his handling of the conflict that sent global energy prices soaring over the past three months. Polls show a majority of American voters disapprove of Trump’s management of the war, and Republican lawmakers have openly worried about the damage it could do to the party’s prospects in the upcoming November midterm elections. Friction has already been simmering for months between Trump and the four leading European G7 members – French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – over Trump’s decision to launch the conflict without consulting NATO allies. In turn, Trump has pushed back against the leaders, accusing them of failing to offer sufficient U.S. backing during the conflict. The tentative deal is expected to shift the tone of this week’s talks, with demining the Strait of Hormuz already set as a top agenda item. Roughly 20% of the world’s global crude oil supplies pass through the strategic waterway, and mining fears have brought nearly all commercial tanker traffic to a halt since the conflict began. Both Britain and France have already signaled they are willing to assist with clearing operations once a ceasefire takes effect, a step seen as critical to restoring global shipping confidence and easing energy market volatility.
Macron, this year’s G7 host, has structured the summit to center heavily on the Middle East following the deal announcement. He extended invitations to the leaders of Egypt, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates – three non-G7 nations with deep stakes in the region – for a dedicated Tuesday session focused on the implications of the new agreement. In a Sunday social media video, Macron outlined the session’s goals: assessing the agreement’s impact, extending support to Lebanon, planning for the long-term reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and advancing negotiations toward a final deal on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
A core point of controversy already emerging around the deal centers on its lack of transparency, particularly regarding nuclear safeguards and proposed economic incentives for Tehran. Trump famously pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the multilateral nuclear agreement negotiated by former President Barack Obama, arguing that the deal failed to block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon and funneled billions of dollars in sanctions relief to the Islamic Republic. But Trump has yet to release key details of his new framework, including who will verify Iranian compliance, and how the deal will address the 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium buried at nuclear sites damaged by U.S. strikes last summer. Senior White House officials have confirmed the deal includes sanctions relief and economic incentives for Iran tied to compliance benchmarks, echoing the core structure of the Obama-era deal Trump once condemned.
Critics from both parties have already seized on the lack of transparency. Senate Intelligence Committee top Democrat Mark Warner noted Sunday on CBS’ *Face the Nation* that Trump’s unilateral framework lacks the multilateral oversight and allied buy-in that defined the JCPOA. “For all his critique of JCPOA, we had international observers, we actually had an alliance there that included the Europeans, and Russia and China were all signatories,” Warner said. “Now it is America going alone or going with Israel only, and that does not make us safer.” Even prominent Trump ally and Iran hawk Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has voiced skepticism, noting that key discrepancies already exist between U.S. and Iranian descriptions of the agreement. Graham added that any final nuclear deal with Iran requires congressional review and approval, and said he expects Vice President JD Vance, described by Graham as “the architect of the deal,” to present the full framework to lawmakers soon.
Beyond Iran, the G7 summit will also address the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which has been largely overshadowed by the 15-week Iran conflict. Macron invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend a working session on the war Tuesday, though no one-on-one meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump is currently scheduled. On Sunday, a day before the summit kicked off, Trump held separate phone calls with both Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters the call with Putin lasted nearly an hour, with Trump emphasizing his commitment to ending hostilities and stating he would push European allies and Kyiv toward a negotiated settlement during his G7 appearances. Ushakov also noted Trump told Putin recent strikes on Russian civilian targets have complicated peace efforts. The White House has not issued any comment on the call, and Ushakov added that Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to travel to Russia for follow-up talks in the near future. In a Telegram statement, Zelenskyy said he updated Trump on recent improvements to Ukraine’s defensive positions along the eastern front, and the two agreed to hold further discussions in person during the summit. The two last met in December at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Since returning to the White House, Trump’s focus on delivering a quick end to the war in Ukraine – a core promise of his 2024 presidential campaign – has been sidelined by the outbreak of the conflict with Iran and the subsequent global energy disruptions.