WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — United States (US) Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet G7 counterparts in France on Friday on the war in Iran, the State Department announced.

The trip comes after President Donald Trump announced that the United States has been talking with Iran — a claim denied by Tehran — as he put on pause his threat to destroy the country’s electricity production.

Rubio, in his first foreign trip since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, will join the G7 foreign ministers’ talks in Cernay-la-Ville, near Versailles on the outskirts of Paris, the State Department announced Tuesday.

Rubio will speak to counterparts on the “Russia-Ukraine war, the situation in the Middle East and threats across the world to peace and stability,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.

France is the current head of the Group of Seven, the club of industrialised democracies that also includes Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan.

While all G7 nations are close US allies, none has unambiguously offered support for the assault on Iran, angering Trump.

G7 foreign ministers on Saturday came together to urge an “immediate and unconditional” end to Iranian attacks on US allies in the Middle East.

Iran has fired a barrage of missiles and drones at energy-rich Gulf Arab monarchies, close military partners of the United States, sending global oil and gas prices soaring.