Starmer and Trump patch up relations at G7 as Iran ceasefire deal leaves Netanyahu isolated

Keir Starmer and Donald Trump appear to have patched up their rocky relationship in their first meeting since falling out over the Iran war, as the US president’s ceasefire deal with Tehran left Benjamin Netanyahu facing a political nightmare. At the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, the British prime minister said he had had “very productive, very good” talks with Trump and that they “get on really well”. The pair sat next to each other for a two-hour dinner on Monday evening and have been “talking pretty constantly” throughout the summit, Starmer told reporters. Their relationship had been under strain since Starmer voiced opposition to US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, prompting Trump to mock him as “no Winston Churchill” and accuse him of reluctance to allow attacks from British soil. The détente came as Trump’s ceasefire agreement with Iran — signed on his 80th birthday — upended the three cornerstones of Netanyahu’s political career, leaving the Israeli prime minister trapped between his key US ally and his own far-right coalition. Trump publicly accused Netanyahu of showing “no judgement” after Israel bombed a Hezbollah command centre in Beirut over the weekend, fuelling fears the attack could unravel the agreement. The US president warned Iran and Israel: “Let’s not blow it.” The deal reopens the Strait of Hormuz, which Trump said would take pressure off the global economy, but critics say it amounts to a strategic defeat. The agreement simply restores the status quo ante bellum — the strait was open before the war started on 28 February — and defers the thorniest issues, including Iran’s nuclear programme, to future negotiations. “It’s difficult to understand why the Americans accepted it,” said Sima Shine, a former Mossad official and Iran specialist. “By allowing Iran to decide what will happen in Lebanon, the US is giving Iran the possibility to continue to support Hezbollah.” Jerusalem’s options are bleak. Opposition leader Yair Lapid summed them up in the Knesset as “either a direct and destructive confrontation with our greatest ally, or a submissive surrender of Israeli interests”. Netanyahu’s own Likud party and far-right cabinet ministers have turned on him. “Trump’s agreement does not bind us,” wrote national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. “We are not partners to this agreement that does not ensure our security.”