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G7 Meets in France to Narrow Transatlantic Iran Split

France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot acknowledges the world is going through a period of 'tension and rivalry'. Thomas SAMSON / AFP
France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot acknowledges the world is going through a period of 'tension and rivalry'. Thomas SAMSON / AFP
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G7 Meets in France to Narrow Transatlantic Iran Split

France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot acknowledges the world is going through a period of 'tension and rivalry'. Thomas SAMSON / AFP
France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot acknowledges the world is going through a period of 'tension and rivalry'. Thomas SAMSON / AFP

Foreign ministers from the G7 meet outside Paris from Thursday with European nations and allies seeking to narrow differences with the US on the Middle East war while keeping other crises like Ukraine and Gaza high on the agenda.

The two-day meeting of seven leading industrialized democracies at the Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey in the countryside outside Paris comes as the White House said President Donald Trump is ready to "unleash hell" if Iran does not accept a deal to end the US-Israeli war against the Iranian republic.

Making his first trip abroad since the war started, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will join fellow top diplomats from Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan and the UK, but only on the second day.

One of the objectives of France, which holds the rotating G7 presidency this year, is "to address the major global imbalances which explain in many respects the level of tension and rivalry we are witnessing with very concrete consequences for our fellow citizens," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told AFP on Tuesday.

With Lebanon pulled into the war as Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel, Barrot also urged Israel to "refrain" from sending in forces to take control of a zone in south Lebanon.

In a bid to broaden the scope of the elite G7 club -- whose origins go back to the first G6 summit held in the nearby Chateau de Rambouillet in 1975 -- France has also invited foreign ministers from key emerging markets Brazil and India as well as Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

France will also on Monday host a separate G7 meeting bringing together finance ministers, energy ministers and central bank governors, Finance Minister Roland Lescure told RTL radio on Thursday.

The meeting, to be held via video call, will address what Lescure described as a "convergence of energy issues, economic issues and inflation issues".

-'Misguided policies'-

While all G7 nations are close US allies, none have unambiguously offered support for the assault on Iran, angering Trump.

German Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil even complained Trump's "misguided policies" in the Middle East were hitting Germany's economy.

Trump has claimed the US is speaking to a "top person" within Iran's clerical system in talks to end the conflict. But Iranian state TV said on Wednesday Tehran had rejected a peace plan conveyed through Pakistan.

Trump's threat to hit Iranian energy facilities -- which he is now holding back on amid the purported talks -- troubled European allies who have all called for de-escalation and not engaged militarily in the conflict.

British foreign minister Yvette Cooper on Tuesday voiced unease that the war had shifted focus away from the Gaza peace plan and violence in the occupied West Bank.

Over four years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Barrot told AFP that support "for the Ukrainian resistance" and pressure on Russia would continue

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World

Russia Says Ukraine Drones Kill Four, Kyiv Reports Hospital Hit

Firefighters work at the site of a reported Russian attack, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in a location given as Odesa Region, Ukraine, November 9, 2026, in this screengrab taken from a handout video.(State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters)
Firefighters work at the site of a reported Russian attack, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in a location given as Odesa Region, Ukraine, November 9, 2026, in this screengrab taken from a handout video.(State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters)
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Russia Says Ukraine Drones Kill Four, Kyiv Reports Hospital Hit

Firefighters work at the site of a reported Russian attack, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in a location given as Odesa Region, Ukraine, November 9, 2026, in this screengrab taken from a handout video.(State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters)
Firefighters work at the site of a reported Russian attack, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in a location given as Odesa Region, Ukraine, November 9, 2026, in this screengrab taken from a handout video.(State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters)

Russia said on Friday that it shot down nearly 1,200 Ukrainian drones overnight, one of the largest swarms sent by Kyiv that killed four people.

Ukrainian authorities reported that another night of Russian attacks had set a hospital ablaze and killed at least three people.

The deadly attacks came a day after intense shuttle diplomacy in US-led talks to end the war approaching its fifth year.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday before jetting to Dublin to huddle with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"In the course of the previous night... aerial defense systems intercepted and destroyed 1,198" Ukrainian drones over more than 15 Russian regions, Russia's defense ministry said in a statement.

Four people working in an industrial zone, home to an oil refinery and a chemical factory, died in the southern Volgograd region, local authorities said.

In Ukraine, a hospital in Kyiv was damaged after a Russian attack triggered a fire and forced people to seek shelter. One person was wounded.

In Odesa, two people were killed and five wounded in the overnight barrage, with "private residential houses and cars" damaged, regional governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram.

A Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia in the southeast killed a 17-year-old boy, acting regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said.

Four people, who rescuers managed to pull from under the rubble, were wounded.

Another Russian strike hit the city of Rivne, in a northwestern region far from the frontline, damaging a kindergarten and wounding six people, including two children.

Ukraine has intensified its retaliatory drone attacks on Russia's energy industry over the past year-and-a-half, seeking to cut the Kremlin's revenues and undermine its ability to finance the war Moscow launched in February 2022.

Russia is heavily targeting Ukraine's own energy grid with aerial barrages, leaving residents across the country without power as temperatures plunge ahead of winter.

World

UN Nuclear Watchdog Urges Iran to Take ‘Steps’ Towards Inspections

An Iranian woman walks next to a billboard depicting Iran’s national flag in a street in Tehran, Iran, 09 November 2026. (EPA)
An Iranian woman walks next to a billboard depicting Iran’s national flag in a street in Tehran, Iran, 09 November 2026. (EPA)
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UN Nuclear Watchdog Urges Iran to Take ‘Steps’ Towards Inspections

An Iranian woman walks next to a billboard depicting Iran’s national flag in a street in Tehran, Iran, 09 November 2026. (EPA)
An Iranian woman walks next to a billboard depicting Iran’s national flag in a street in Tehran, Iran, 09 November 2026. (EPA)

The UN's nuclear watchdog urged Iran to take "incremental steps" to allow inspectors to return to key nuclear facilities in the Islamic republic, adding such access was "critical" in a report seen by AFP Friday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has not had access to key nuclear facilities in Iran since Israel, joined by the United States, launched a 12-day conflict in June 2025 that included strikes on nuclear sites.

Nuclear facilities have also been hit in the latest war, which erupted on February 28, and the IAEA has repeatedly called for access.

In its report, to be discussed at an IAEA board of governors meeting next week, the agency noted that it was "critical" for it to conduct "verification activities in Iran without further delay".

"The director general encourages Iran to consider technical and gradual measures by which conditions are achieved that allow for the return of agency inspectors to Iran," the report said.

"Such incremental steps could pave the way to normal safeguards implementation in Iran while contributing to a confidence-building atmosphere conducive to a wider agreement," it added.

The report detailed correspondence in recent weeks between the IAEA and Iran.

IAEA inspectors were able to visit Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant in September, but have had no access to other facilities.

The IAEA "acknowledged that the military attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities and sites created an unprecedented situation".

But because of a lack of cooperation "the agency is not able to conclude that there has been no diversion of declared nuclear material from peaceful nuclear activities in Iran", the report said.

"The agency's lack of information about ... nuclear material and access to facilities to verify it is a matter of serious proliferation concern," the IAEA said, adding it "needs to be rectified with the utmost urgency".

The IAEA board in September referred Iran to the UN Security Council over its nuclear "non-compliance", marking the first time Iran has been referred to the UN top body in 20 years for failing to comply with its nuclear reporting obligations.

Before the June 2025 strikes, the IAEA calculated that Iran possessed approximately 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, nearing the 90 percent needed to make a bomb and well above the 3.67-percent limit set by a 2015 now-defunct agreement with Iran.

Since June 2025, the fate of the stockpile has remained uncertain.

Iran has long denied striving to develop a nuclear bomb.

World

US Navy Quietly Fired Some Commanders And Officials, Drawing Congressional Pushback

US Marine Corps aviation assets and personnel embarked aboard USS Boxer (LHD 4) support ongoing enforcement of the US blockade against Iran. (CENTCOM)
US Marine Corps aviation assets and personnel embarked aboard USS Boxer (LHD 4) support ongoing enforcement of the US blockade against Iran. (CENTCOM)
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US Navy Quietly Fired Some Commanders And Officials, Drawing Congressional Pushback

US Marine Corps aviation assets and personnel embarked aboard USS Boxer (LHD 4) support ongoing enforcement of the US blockade against Iran. (CENTCOM)
US Marine Corps aviation assets and personnel embarked aboard USS Boxer (LHD 4) support ongoing enforcement of the US blockade against Iran. (CENTCOM)

The Navy has quietly fired or removed several top officers in recent months but broke with its usual practice of announcing those changes, drawing pushback from Congress, according to The Associated Press.

Two Democratic lawmakers said Thursday that the Navy failed to inform Congress that it fired the entire leadership team of a nuclear-powered attack submarine last month after an underwater collision.

Separately, the sea service in September fired the commander of a destroyer deployed to the Middle East, according to a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive personnel matters.

Dr. Brian Monahan, a Navy rear admiral and attending physician for Congress and the Supreme Court, also departed his post during a Navy investigation — with no public announcement or confirmation.

All three are a break from the Navy’s longstanding policy to announce major removals of commanders and other highly visible officials. They also follow an increasing level of secrecy over military operations, especially in the Middle East.

“As a result of the Navy’s failure to communicate, what should have been a standard exercise in information sharing has instead raised questions about the Navy’s commitment to transparency and its commitment to a productive working relationship with Congress,” Representatives Joe Courtney of Connecticut and Adam Smith of Washington wrote in a letter to Navy leaders.

The developments could set up a contentious confirmation hearing next week for acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao as he seeks to permanently take over as the top civilian official.

Restrictions on the military sharing information go beyond the Navy.

US Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, has released few details on recent limited strikes on Iran and refused to comment on or specify damage to bases or equipment, usually citing the need for operational security.

Major satellite imagery providers with US contracts have blocked or delayed public release of images in the region at the request of American officials.

As a result, it took months to determine that Iranian drone and missile strikes damaged or destroyed structures on 26 military bases and other sites with US equipment in the region, according to an AP analysis.