WHY did Donald Trump leave the G7 meeting so abruptly? Was it really because of the escalating conflict in the Middle East?

Dean Blundell, Canadian media personality and self-styled muckraker, has suggested in his Substack column and on X that Trump’s advisers pulled him out because his “alarming, dishevelled, disconnected appearance had world leaders — and his own team — panicking.”

Trump looked “pale and lethargic,” says Blundell. His speech was slurred, and at times he trailed off in mid-sentence. He fell asleep in less than an hour after the start of the meeting. According to one attendee, the overall impression was of a man “not entirely in command of his faculties.”

As this paper reported, Trump also dropped the papers of Sir Keir Starmer’s coveted US-Britain trade pact while signing them.

Given Trump’s rants on his Truth Social platform, including “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran” and “patience is wearing thin,” and his open call for Iran’s “complete surrender,” we should be doubly concerned that the US, and this country with it, will be directly and openly involved in war with Iran.

The US is already covertly involved, through providing intelligence and refuelling Israeli jets in flight. It seems pretty likely that Israel’s ability to assassinate 11 senior Iranian generals so quickly was due to Meta (Facebook) passing on location information gathered from WhatsApp.

Israel claims that its attack on Iran is a “pre-emptive” one, to address an immediate threat of Iran constructing a nuclear bomb. But there is no evidence for that. Until the attack, Iran remained a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, in contrast with Israel, which is estimated to possess 50 nuclear weapons.

International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi has admitted that Iran was not going to make a nuclear weapon. “What we reported was that we did not have any proof of a systematic effort to move towards a nuclear weapon,” he said in a TV interview.

CNN reported on Tuesday that US intelligence assesses Iran as not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon, and that it would take up to three years for it to have the capacity to produce and deliver one to a target of its choosing.

So Israel is in clear violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter. When Russia invaded Ukraine — an action this paper condemned at the time — the EU, Britain and the US invoked Ukraine’s right to defend itself under Article 51, but those same Western governments are now bizarrely offering Article 51 to the aggressor Israel, instead of Iran.

Today, Osint Aggregator reported on X that Trump will decide within 24-48 hours whether to pursue a diplomatic or a military path. Iran has signalled through intermediaries that it wants to de-escalate the conflict, but Israel has expressed no such desire.

The Financial Times comments that it is doubtful that Israel could destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities without US involvement, as the US is the only country having bombs powerful enough to damage the crucial Fordow uranium enrichment plant, located deep underground.

This paper has no truck with Iran’s theocratic regime, but, unsurprisingly, its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, says Iran “will never surrender.” Meanwhile, members of the US Congress from both parties are trying to limit Trump’s authority to strike Iran.

In this situation, with a US president becoming increasingly unstable, there is a danger of an Israeli false-flag attack on US assets in the Middle East, and the US launching attacks on Iran in response.

Any attack must be prevented. The risks of wider conflict are enormous. Immediate pressure must be brought on our own government to break with US and Israeli actions, to demand a peaceful resolution to the Iran-Israel conflict, to recognise the Palestinian state and to impose a complete trade boycott and arms embargo on Israel until it ceases its attacks on Iran and withdraws from Gaza and the West Bank.