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French President Emmanuel Macron, who was the only of the three countries’ leaders that struck Syria with airstrikes on Friday night that had not made a public appearance about it, took questions during a long interview on national French television last night, discussing a range of items from the national rail strikes, to labor reform, to his relationship with US President Donald Trump.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">French President <a href="https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EmmanuelMacron</a> has said he convinced US President <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> not to withdraw troops from Syria and instead commit "for the long term". Trump initially wanted to pull out of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Syria?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Syria</a> . Macron asked for limited strikes. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/France?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#France</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BreakingNews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BreakingNews</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SyriaStrike?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SyriaStrike</a></p>— Diplomatic Talk (@DiplomaticTalk) <a href="https://twitter.com/DiplomaticTalk/status/985758316369469440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2018</a></blockquote>

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The French president explained the role of it’s military in the strikes against suspected Syrian chemical weapons facilities. The French air force and navy joined the US and Britain in firing a total of 105 missiles one three targets near the Syrian cities of Damascus and Homs.

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Mr Macron: "Ten days ago, President Trump was saying 'the United States should withdraw from Syria'. We convinced him it was necessary to stay for the long term."

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The French President also claimed that he had spoken directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin and told him that he was complicit to what was happening in Syria: "They have not used chlorine themselves but they have methodically built the international community's inability to act through diplomatic channels to stop the use of chemical weapons."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Macron says he 'convinced' Trump to stay in Syria ahead of strikes<a href="https://t.co/A75aA5uSEF">https://t.co/A75aA5uSEF</a></p>— Katy Wong (@katywong03) <a href="https://twitter.com/katywong03/status/985761125877694466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Mr Macron states that he has an excellent working relationship with his US counterpart. Later this month the French first couple will travel to Washington and be afforded the first formal White House state visit of the Trump presidency. Mr Trump and First Lady Melania were invited for the 14 July celebrations in Paris last year.

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Many international commentators do agree that Mr Trump and Mr Macron have great mutual respect for each other and the French press has been quite positive on the US economic developments as of late.

Source:

http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/live/2018/04/15/emmanuel-macron-sur-bfm-rmc-et-mediapart-suivez-en-direct-l-interview-du-president_5285824_823448.html