Arab leaders have convened at a G7 leaders' meeting in France to discuss the Iran-US peace agreement announced this week.
President Sheikh Mohamed, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim joined a working lunch to discuss crises in the Middle East.
The aim is to ensure that the US-Iran agreement is a lasting one that keeps the Strait of Hormuz open and oil prices down, G7 host France said. Further details of the deal are to be announced in Geneva on Friday before a 60-day negotiation period is launched to address Iran's nuclear programme.
In Evian, US President Donald Trump assured fellow leaders that Tehran would not have a nuclear weapon.
“There's an agreement about one thing, that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, never, ever, ever. The rest of it's irrelevant, frankly,” Mr Trump said.
Iran's enriched uranium
Speaking during a meeting with Sheikh Mohamed, Mr Trump said the US wanted to destroy Iran's enriched uranium – believed to be enough to make several nuclear bombs. “We're not looking to take it, we're looking to destroy it,” Mr Trump added.
One possibility pushed by European powers is to move Iran's enriched uranium abroad to be destroyed. Russia has offered to do that in the past, but France and China can also deal with highly enriched uranium.
Before meeting Mr Trump, Sheikh Mohamed held a separate meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. They discussed “investment, technology, artificial intelligence, energy and culture, within the framework of the two countries’ strategic partnership”, state news agency Wam reported.
“They also exchanged views on a number of issues of mutual interest, with a particular focus on the latest developments in the Middle East,” it added.
Reopening the strait
France is working hard to make the US-Iran agreement a reality, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux told The National.
“It means that first we’ll do everything to have the Strait of Hormuz open as soon as we can,” he said. “We won’t agree with any toll or any privatised solution in the Strait of Hormuz, because it [would] raise the cost of traffic and create a precedent we want to avoid.”
European powers have been cautiously optimistic about the US President's promise that the strait will reopen on Friday. “We have to confirm the agreement and put it in reality,” Mr Confavreux said.
Finding alternative routes to the strait, including along the uncompleted India Middle East Corridor (IMEC), was also on the agenda of the leaders' discussions.
Almost 25 per cent of the world's oil and gas usually transits through the strait, and bypassing it entails investing heavily in land infrastructure across Gulf states and Egypt. “How much it costs, through which countries, from where to where, these are concrete discussion that’ll take place here in Evian,” Mr Confavreux said.
Demining operations
Shortly after arriving at the summit, Mr Trump, alongside Mr Macron, said mine clearance operations had started in the Strait of Hormuz.
France is seeking approval from the US and Iran to launch a defensive operation in the strait to provide security for merchant ships. The UK is co-leading an international naval force of about 50 states to secure the waterway.
“We stand ready to deploy the multinational mission that we have been preparing in the books since the beginning of March,” Mr Confavreux said. “This mission has different aspects – one to swipe mines and the other to have a military escort of civilian ships.”
Nato's structure gives European allies demining capacities that interest Mr Trump, he added.
Europeans are understood to be ready to map out the area to locate potential mines and destroy them in a bid to encourage commercial ships to return to the area.
Mr Trump said it was “not a bad idea to have a ship or two up here from a few countries”. He added: “I don’t think we’re going to need much help because we’ll have an agreement where it’s going to be open and it’s toll-free.”
