Jeffrey Fields USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Relations between the United States and Iran have been fraught for decades – at least since the U.S. helped overthrow a democracy-minded prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, in August 1953. The U.S. then supported the long, repressive reign of the Shah of Iran, whose security services brutalized Iranian citizens for decades.

Six of the Group of Seven leaders discussed Russia's war in Ukraine and the Israel-Iran conflict but failed to reach major agreements on those and many other top issues — closing a summit that was forced to try and show how the wealthy nations' club might still shape global policy despite the early departure of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his counterparts from the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Japan were joined during Tuesday's final sessions by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO chief Mark Rutte.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to take questions Wednesday from international journalists on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Putin scheduled a roundtable session with senior news leaders of international news agencies, including The Associated Press. Among other issues, he's expected to spell out Moscow's position on the conflict between Israel and Iran that he offered to help mediate in a weekend call with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Russia poses a direct threat to the European Union through acts of sabotage and cyberattacks, but its massive military spending suggests that President Vladimir Putin also plans to use his armed forces elsewhere in the future, the EU's top diplomat warned on Wednesday.

"Russia is already a direct threat to the European Union," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. She listed a series of Russian airspace violations, provocative military exercises, and attacks on energy grids, pipelines and undersea cables.

Iran’s ambassador in Geneva derided as “hostile” and “unwarranted” U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments calling for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”

Ambassador Ali Bahreini told reporters the Israeli campaign “has not been able to bring big damage to our nuclear facilities” because it had taken precautions to protect them.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday the nation would never surrender as demanded by President Donald Trump and warned the United States it would face "irreparable damage" if it intervenes in support of its ally.

The speech came six days into the conflict, with Trump demanding Iran's "unconditional surrender" while boasting the United States could kill Khamenei and fueling speculation about a possible intervention.

U.S. President Donald Trump met his National Security Council on Tuesday to discuss the Iran-Israel war, the White House said, as the U.S. leader considered whether to join Israel's air campaign against Tehran.

U.S. President Donald Trump met with his national security team in the White House Situation Room on Tuesday to make decisions about U.S. policy towards the war between Israel and Iran, three U.S. officials told U.S. news portal Axios.

U.S. President Donald Trump dramatically stepped up his rhetoric against Iran's supreme leader Tuesday, saying on social media that the United States knows where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is located but will not kill him "for now."

In another post, Trump also appeared to demand Iran's "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!" as he fueled questions about whether the United States would join Israel's attacks on Tehran's leadership and nuclear facilities.

Six weeks after Spain and Portugal suffered a massive power outage, authorities in Madrid issued an official report Tuesday, saying April's cascading blackout that left tens of millions disconnected in seconds was caused by technical and planning errors that led to the grid's failure.

Spain's Ecological Transition Minister Sara Aagesen, who manages the nation's energy policy, said in a press conference that small grid failures, concentrated in the south of Spain, led to a chain reaction among larger ones, while completely ruling out questions about a cyberattack.