Euro crisis, Iran, Syria discussed at G8

The Euro crisis topped the G8 talks German chancellor Angela Merkel was urged by world leaders to stimulate flagging eurozone growth but the formal conclusions to the G8 summit do not commit her to a change of course. In a statement issued from their Camp David retreat in Maryland, near Washington, leaders of the world’s richest economies declared their imperative was to \"promote growth and jobs\".In a marked move away from across-the-board austerity aimed at reducing ballooning national deficits, the G8 states stated that “the right measures are not the same for each of us”. But the communiqué did not state that countries with the capacity to stimulate demand should do so.
Troubled eurozone members such as Spain and Italy are already under pressure from debt markets and cannot choose to adopt more stimulative policies by themselves. Core EU countries likes Germany are the only ones cpaable of boosting demand at home or transferring more resources to the periphery.
“Today we agreed that we must take steps to boost confidence and to promote growth and demand while getting our fiscal houses in order,” said US president Barack Obama at the end of the summit. “We agreed upon the importance of a strong and cohesive eurozone and affirmed our interest in Greece staying in the eurozone while respecting its commitments.”
Officials from each of the G8 countries met for dinner on Friday night and talks continued until 4am as they tried to thrash out an agreement on how strongly the eventual communiqué would push for more eurozone action.
One German official said the discussion was a “free and intense exchange of views”. But the person added: “That is the whole point of a G8 meeting.”
The co-founder of the G8 Research Group, John Kirton, told Arabstoday that the G8 leaders Friday also discussed the Syrian crisis, and the necessity of implementing Kofi Annan\'s plan because it is the \"best available choice now\", amid fears of enhancing al-Qaeda\'s existence in Syria.
Kirton revealed that the leaders discussed tightening the pressure on the Syrian regime, but the suggestion was rejected by Russia, as well as increasing sanctions on Iran to force it to agree settlements relating to its nuclear ambitions, in parallel with the continuation of dialogue with it, through the six-countries group which will meet with Iranian representatives in next July.
Kirton said that the leaders of the United States, Britain, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia, which was represented by prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, not the president, Vladimir Putin, focused on the financial crisis experienced by the euro zone, in addition to the North Korean nuclear programme, as well as the political crisis in Myanmar.
Kirton reported that the G8 leaders sent a strong message that UN observers in Syria should be given a bigger capacity to move, in addition to supporting dialogue with the regime, in order to urge it to enable the people of expressing their opinions, thus the ability to change in future, pointing to the entry of a third party in the killing operations, which is al-Qaeda, revealing the fears of the group from the expansion of the role of al-Qaeda in Syria.
Kirton added that the summit discussed the Iranian nuclear issue, and the ways to open a dialogue with it through the six-countries group (the five permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany), which will hold a meeting with a representative of the Iranian government in Baghdad soon .
On Europe\'s ability to boycott the Iranian oil, Kirton said: \"The G8 set a deadline untill next July, for the European countries to stop importing this oil,\" though he seemed unsure of the ability of the importing countries to meet the deadline, and did not rule out that it may be extended, as the dialogue meeting between Iran and the six countries will be held in the same month.
Obama and David Cameron, the UK prime minister, met on Saturday morning in the gym of the US president’s country retreat and agreed that European institutions such as the European Central Bank needed to do more to boost the currency bloc’s faltering economy.
Cameron said after the summit: “Why meetings like this matter is that eurozone countries can hear from countries outside the eurozone … whose economies are affected: obviously Britain, but also America, Japan, Canada. It is very important these messages get across and I would say there is a growing sense of urgency that action needs to be taken, contingency plans need to be put in place.”
The two leaders received support from Mario Monti, the Italian prime minister, who led the discussions on the global economy. In an interview with CNN, the broadcaster, on Sunday morning, Monti said: “We link back to the notion of demand … I think we should regard it more positively than the most conservative European authorities do.”
But reflecting German resistance to authorise monetary easing from the ECB, Monti added: “On the other hand, if it is an across-the-board crusade for more demand, then I believe that the German reluctance to that is not entirely unfounded.”
After the G8 finished, Obama and Merkel met for a 45-minute bilateral session that covered security issues but did not break new ground on the eurozone.
Concluding a tricky summit for the German leader, G8 leaders gathered to watch Bayern Munich lose a penalty shoot-out to Chelsea in the European Cup final. According to pool reporting there was “playful trash talking, and sympathy for chancellor Merkel, in many languages”.