Macron and Trump trade barbs over US president's early G7 exit
French President Emmanuel Macron has fired back at comments from US President Donald Trump, as the pair offer differing opinions on why Trump left the G7 summit in Canada early.
The US government had justified Trump's early departure from the summit in Kananaskis because of the Middle East crisis.
On Monday, Macron said Trump's departure was due to a possible ceasefire between Israel and Iran, but Trump took to social media to say the French president "always gets it wrong" and he was not negotiating a ceasefire.
At the summit on Tuesday, Macron attributed Trump's comments to an obvious "change of mind" on the topic. Macron added he was not responsible for the US government's change in stance.
Trump had previously suggested that Iran was ready to negotiate and that he would address the matter upon returning from the G7 meeting.
Macron reiterated that he thought it was a good thing if Trump wanted to hold talks for a ceasefire.
"The biggest error would be to use military strikes to change the regime because it would then be chaos."
Tensions between Iran and Israel have exploded following five days of Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, senior military officials, scientists and infrastructure and counterattacks by Iran on Israel.
Trump warned that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is an "easy target" after urging civilians to evacuate Tehran, fuelling fears of a dramatic escalation in the Middle East.
But he said the US is "not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now."
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