Trump delays Iran strike decision to allow for negotiations

The White House has announced that a decision whether to strike Iran will be made with two weeks as talks continue. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, is due to meet European counterparts in Geneva later today in a bid to make a last-minute deal to avert further conflict. Spain has pushed back against NATO demands to increase its defence bill to 5 per cent of GDP. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called the aim ‘counter-productive’. And in M&A news, Unicredit CEO Andrea Orcel has said his bank is likely to withdraw its offer for rival lender Banco BPM despite receiving the EU’s approval of the move. Orcel said he believed Unicredit would flourish with or without the takeover.