On: G7 summit gets underway with spotlight on US-Iran deal

The ink of this agreement has scarcely dried before the G7 convenes - like a council of generals reassembling after the first skirmish, still clutching maps that may already be obsolete. The Americans and Iranians have declared an end to the war, or so they say, but the battlefield does not pause for declarations. The guns may fall silent in one valley while the embers smolder in another, and the real question is not whether the fighting stops, but whether the peace that follows is anything more than a truce between exhausted men who have not yet agreed on the terms of surrender.

This reminds me of the armistice of 1918, when the guns ceased but the terms of the peace were still being haggled over the corpses of empires. The difference then was that the victors had the will - and the wisdom - to impose order. Now? The G7 meets as a chorus of caution, each nation hesitant to commit lest they be accused of overreach, each waiting to see who will bear the burden of enforcement. France, ever the diplomat, will propose frameworks; Germany will calculate costs; Britain will nod sagely while wondering if anyone else is paying attention. And America? America will have its deal, signed in haste, and now must decide whether to stand behind it or let the wind of public opinion shift its course.

The most dangerous moment is not the signing of the treaty, but the silence that follows. The people of the Middle East will not know if this is peace or merely the lull before the next storm. And the G7, for all its power, will find that the weight of history does not bend to summits or handshakes. It bends to those who are willing to hold the line when the going is toughest.

One thing is certain: if this agreement is to hold, it will not be because of the goodwill of men, but because of the resolve of nations to see it through. And that resolve, my dear diary, is in shorter supply than ever.