Good morning. In Alberta, Canada yesterday, leaders of six of the G7 countries set out their stalls on the conflict between Iran and Israel. Keir Starmer insisted that de-escalation was still the plan; Emmanuel Macron said that “the biggest mistake that can be made today is to try to change the regime in Iran by military means”. But more than 3,000km away in Washington DC, the G7 leader who matters most was charting his own course – and bringing the US closer to entering the war.
Within 24 hours Donald Trump shifted from promises that a deal could be done to demands for Tehran’s “unconditional surrender”. To his supporters this was a genius strategic manoeuvre and all part of the plan; to residents of the Iranian capital it is a much more ominous shift.
