Caricature by DonkeyHotey flic.kr/p/Ct4G4K https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

As the host of the 2019 G-7 Summit, French President Emmanuel Macron is welcome to invite anyone he wishes to the event. In fact, there were several attendees who were not members of the group of seven. There were representatives from India, Egypt and several other African nations present. But did Macron really have to invite Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif?

President Trump told reporters that Macron had sought his approval before extending the invitation to Zarif, but many remain skeptical about that.

“I knew [Zarif] was coming in and I respected the fact that he was coming in. We’re looking to make Iran rich again, let them be rich, let them do well, if they want,” Trump said.

He added, “I will tell you, we’ve had great unity even with Iran…We’ve come to a conclusion more or less. The biggest part of the conclusion is they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

Fox News’ military analyst Gen. Jack Keane spoke to Jonathan Scott, host of [Fox News’] “America’s Newsroom,” about Zarif’s appearance at the summit. Keane said:

It certainly is odd. I think it had more to do with Macron’s self-promotion for his domestic audience than anything else.

I think it’s kind of small on his part, frankly. He knows the United States is embroiled in a major international crisis with the Iranians and trying to get them to change their behavior for everybody’s benefit, in terms of their aggressive and malign behavior in the Middle East.

Over the weekend, we’ve got Israel attacking Iran in three different places because of their preparations to attack and encroach on Israel.

The Iranians are holding a British tanker and obviously Prime Minister Johnson is part of the G-7…I think it had more to do with a political stunt than anything else…

There’s no violation of any rule in bringing him in, but the appropriateness of it, I think, was certainly off.

Former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley found Macron’s invitation to Zarif to be manipulative, very insincere and completely disrespectful to the President and to the other G-7 leaders.

This is completely disrespectful to @realDonaldTrump and the other leaders at the G7. Iran supports terrorism at every turn and continues to pursue “Death to America”. Manipulative of Macron to do this and very insincere. #NotWhatFriendsDo https://t.co/ujDe81c433

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) August 25, 2019