G20 summit 2019…the Iranian crisis at the top of disputes and crises

World leaders are in Osaka, Japan for the annual two-day meeting, amid a growing number of disputes and crises involving the world’s largest economies.

Behind closed doors in G20 summit 2019, leaders will debate the threat of conflict between Washington and Tehran and the raging US-China trade war, which shows little sign of abating.

The US President has a host of meetings with other world leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited US President Donald Trump to attend next year’s Victory Day celebration in Moscow, said Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov.

“We invited the US President to come visit us for the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War [World War II] on May 9 of next year… The US president reacted very positively,” said Ushakov, speaking on Russia state television channel Rossiya-24.

“In this regard, there was a conversation about who, which country lost the most during the war, whose role was most decisive. Appropriately the contribution of the Soviet people to this victory was noted.”

May 9 is a major Russian holiday marking the end of World War II, traditionally celebrated with a massive military parade.

The situation in Iran threatens to spiral out of control if escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran are not kept in check. In Syria, no solutions are in sight and to make matters worse, Idlib province in the country’s northwest has fallen under the control of jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda.

On arms control, the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction) treaty, the only bilateral agreement in force, will expire in 2021 and the two sides still have not discussed what to do next.

Senior officials from Iran and the remaining signatories to its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers were meeting Friday as tensions in the Arabian Gulf simmer and Tehran is poised to surpass a uranium stockpile threshold, posing a threat to the accord.

At the heart of the meeting in Vienna is Iran’s desire for European countries to deliver on promises of financial relief from U.S. sanctions. Iran is insisting that it wants to save the agreement and has urged the Europeans to start buying Iranian oil or give Iran a credit line to keep the accord alive.

The regular quarterly meeting of the accord’s so-called joint commission, which brings together senior officials from Iran, France, Germany, Britain, Russia, China and the European Union, is meant to discuss implementation of the deal. There was no comment from the participants as they arrived for the gathering at a Vienna hotel.

The 2015 agreement aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. The United States withdrew from the accord last year and has imposed new sanctions on Iran to cripple its economy, in hopes of forcing Tehran into negotiating a wider-ranging deal.

‘No rush’ to ease tensions

President Donald Trump said on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan that “there’s no rush” to ease the tensions with Iran.