Rubio plans travel to France to sell Iran war to skeptical allies
-
Click here to listen to this article - Share via
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to France this week to try to sell America’s skeptical Group of Seven allies on the strategy of the Iran war that has sent global fuel prices soaring, the State Department said Tuesday.
Rubio will attend a G7 foreign ministers meeting near Versailles outside of Paris on Friday “to advance key U.S. interests” and “discuss shared security concerns and opportunities for cooperation,” the department said.
“Areas of focus will include the Russia-Ukraine war, the situation in the Middle East, and threats across the world to peace and stability,” the department said in a statement released amid conflicting accounts over whether the U.S. and Iran are talking about a resolution to the conflict.
President Trump said Monday that the U.S. and Iran have had discussions, although Iran has denied it. And numerous other countries are involved in nascent efforts to find an off-ramp to the crisis, which has caused the price of oil to skyrocket with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to most shipping, including tankers.
Nearly all of the other G7 nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — have reacted coolly at best to the U.S.-Israeli military operation against Iran and have declined to participate, drawing Trump’s ire even as he maintains the U.S. doesn’t need their help.
Trump has lashed out at a number of G7 members and NATO allies for not responding to his calls for help in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, although in recent days several of them had indicated a willingness to back appropriate action to restore the key waterway to normal traffic.
Lee writes for the Associated Press.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
It started as a ploy to scare Texas out of redrawing its congressional map and ended with California voters approving a new map of their own, one that could hat could help alter the balance of power in Washington.
William Mulholland was the water boss who made L.A. possible. His reputation gave him unchecked authority as a dam builder. In 1928, that led to one of America’s deadliest disasters--and the question of whether it was a crime.
