|
Listen to article
|
The G7 summit of world powers in France is being chaired by President Emmanuel Macron as host but on Wednesday his guest US President Donald Trump left no doubt over who he believed was in charge.
“I’m the boss,” Trump said as he strode in to the morning session of the last day of the three-day G7 summit, with the other leaders already in their seats.
Amid laughter, Macron appeared to take the comment with good humour. “How are you?” the French president asked.
“Good, thank you,” replied Trump, a tycoon before becoming president who famously hosted the TV show “The Apprentice” with its catchphrase “You’re fired!”, as he finally took his seat.
Fresh from clinching an accord to end the war with Iran and celebrating his 80th birthday, Trump’s presence has dominated the summit in the spa town of Evian on Lake Geneva.
French officials will be satisfied that the mercurial US president has stayed for the entire event and signed on to the G7 communique — in contrast to the previous gathering in Canada, where he left early.
In an unusual gesture, Macron has invited Trump to dinner at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris after the summit winds down on Wednesday afternoon.
Macron, under pressure to show he is not fawning over Trump, has already said the evening at Versailles will not be a “gala” dinner.
President Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to respond after he accused Iran of shooting down a US military helicopter the previous night, hours after he said negotiations to end the Middle East war were in their final stages.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker and its chief negotiator in talks with Washington, meanwhile warned the United States on Tuesday against breaking its “commitments”.
The comments came a day after Iran and Israel halted attacks that threatened to reignite the regional war, which was sparked by US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
Read Also: Trump Urges Restraint As Iran Retaliates Israel’s Lebanon Strikes
In a statement, Trump said he had been informed “that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz”.
While the crew members were uninjured, “the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” he said.
Iran’s Ghalibaf also issued a warning on Tuesday.
“We prefer the language of diplomacy, but we speak other languages far more fluently. Break your commitments, and we’ll switch to what we speak best. You ride the horse you saddled!” he said on X.
The Apache helicopter is the second crewed aircraft that Washington has confirmed was shot down by Iran during the war, following the loss of an F-15 fighter plane in April.
The downing and the prospect of a US response pose the latest threat to a shaky ceasefire in place since April 8, as the US and Iran struggle to negotiate an end to the conflict.
