Name: Trump leaves G7 summit early due to Middle East situation | DW News
Uploaded: 2025-06-17T15:54:43.000Z
Duration: 16 min 57 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Let's start at the G7 summit in Canada, where US President Trump has cut his trip short.

Transition words & phrases

The White House says his early departure is due to the situation in the Middle East.

Adverbs of manner

The announcement comes just hours after Trump issued a warning to Iran on his Truth Social platform, urging people to immediately evacuate the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Trump has reportedly directed his national security team to meet in the Situation Room back in Washington.

Here's what Trump told reporters just hours before the announcement that he would be leaving Canada.

I think Iran basically is at the negotiating table, they want to make a deal, and as soon as I leave here, we're going to be doing something, but I have to leave here.

I want to see no nuclear weapon in Iran, and we're well on our way to making sure that happens.

We can cross over to DW correspondent Janelle Dumoulin, who's in Canada for the G7.

What can we expect from the US President when he returns to the White House, with all of this that we know, the Situation Room being prepared, et cetera?

Jack, so as you know, the President is in the air as we speak, expected to land in Washington DC in the next few hours.

Now, we know that the reason for his departure has been cited as that escalating crisis between Iran and Israel, that crisis that has overshadowed this entire summit.

You played that clip there earlier, where he was standing with Keir Starmer, saying that when we have to leave, when I leave here, we're going to do something, indicating that departure was on his mind.

So the discussion here is that the reason that he is leaving is that he finds himself in a sort of decision-making crossroads.

He is expected to either decide to continue to pursue diplomacy with Iran, or involve the US militarily.

So perhaps destroying remaining Iranian nuclear infrastructure buried deep underground, the so-called Fordow facility, with so-called American bunker busters using American B-2 planes.

That is the thinking currently here on the ground.

He was asked by reporters here why he couldn't make further decisions on the Iran-Israel crisis from here in Canada, and why he had to go back to Washington to do it.

But you mentioned that there are reports that the Situation Room is being prepared.

So that tells us this is not a routine situation.

The president personally perhaps wants to be in the Situation Room to direct crisis responses, to monitor real-term developments on the ground, and in order to get high-level briefings from military leaders, from the intelligence community.

We can't tell you exactly what might unfold in the Situation Room, but these are significant developments indeed.

How is it going down amongst the other G7 leaders that Trump left so early?

Well, my sense is that the G7 leaders who are remaining here in Canada, nobody has said that they are leaving early as well.

They are taking pains to highlight the fact that Trump is leaving because of an emergency.

It's not because he doesn't believe in the G7 or no longer wants to engage in this multilateral process.

So we heard from the likes of the host, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

He said that he was fully briefed on the president's departure, on President Trump's departure.

He said that he appreciated the president's presence, but that he fully understands.

We also heard from the likes of French President Emmanuel Macron, who said something along similar lines.

He said if there's an opportunity for Trump, he indicated that if there's an opportunity for Trump to kickstart talks again, to perhaps get ceasefire negotiations back on track, then this is an opportunity that he should take.

Of course, one of the questions here that is remaining is what will become of this joint statement that the leaders actually wanted to sign on the Iran-Israel conflict.

There was earlier reporting to indicate that Trump was not interested in signing.

There have been a few indicators since then that perhaps he has budged on that.

We are still awaiting an announcement on that later tonight.

But the G7 leaders' message is very much, we are going to continue with the summit.

There are other leaders expected tomorrow, Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine, Claudia Scheinbaum of Mexico.

Janelle Dumoulin, in Kananaskis in Canada.

He's an assistant professor at the George Washington University, specializing in the Middle East.

And he's joining us live from Washington, DC.

Let's go first to what's happening with the G7 and Trump's return to the White House.

We've heard from multiple US media reports that the Situation Room is being prepared.

But Pentagon officials recently, as I was getting ready for this interview, have said that the US is maintaining a defensive position and is not planning to join the war.

The US could switch sides and participate in offensive operations.

This is something that the Israelis want.

And actually, their former defense minister said this afternoon that the US has an obligation to join them.

Because it is only the United States that has the capacity, ammunition and ability to destroy the Fordow nuclear plant, which Israelis cannot do it on their own.

So of course, the Israelis would like to see it.

But the problem for them is that President Trump has repeatedly said that he does not want to start another war in the region.

And they prefer to basically stay out of the fight.

And the US position is that as long as the Iranians don't attack US interests and bases, they will not participate.

So let's talk about what Trump is doing here, then, because he previously posted that everyone should evacuate Tehran.

He's saying in Alberta, in Canada, that he wants a nuclear deal.

But also with that evacuation request, what should the people of Tehran, the Iranian capital, be doing?

Well, Tehran is a very large city with 10 million population, 12 million in the morning when during working hours.

So it is physically impossible to evacuate a city with that population in three hours or four hours that President Trump is giving them.

My guess is that the president wants to intimidate Iranians to submit to the deal that he wants, which is basically giving up on the issue of enrichment.

He has said repeatedly that what he wants is a deal that involves Iran not acquiring nuclear weapons.

But the fundamental difference between the Iranians and the Americans is the issue of domestic enrichment in Iran.

So going back to your question, my sense is that he, by provoking people, by intimidating Iranians and creating chaos, he wants to submit Iranians to a deal that he really wants to have because his two other foreign policy agendas, that is the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza, have failed so far.

Will the Iranian leadership capitulate with this sort of ramped up pressure?

Well, what Iranians have said repeatedly is that they're willing to curtail, significantly curtail their nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

However, my understanding of Iranians is that when they're being attacked, they will not submit to a deal because it really looks bad on them or any country to sign practically a surrender document as they're being attacked.

If I want to put it very simply, you cannot beat up a guy and say, come negotiate with me or you're going to get more beating.

And this is something that Iranian officials have said repeatedly, that they're willing to negotiate if the fighting stops.

And their foreign minister said this morning that President Trump can stop this by making a phone call.

Zina Rezoudi, thank you so much for joining us on DW News.

He's a Middle East analyst and a contributing writer for The Atlantic.

So I know your parents worked at the Iranian state broadcaster, which was bombed, which we just saw.

Israel says its strikes are on military targets.

I mean, I don't think they even claim that they're only hitting military targets anymore.

They went from Iranians, you know, our fight is not with you, to Israel cuts.

The defense minister is saying Tehran will burn, the people of Tehran will pay the price.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Trump leaves G7 summit early due to Middle East situation | DW News

sort

overwhelming

opportunity

situation