G20 Summit Embarrassment: Germany’s Merkel Bows To Saudi Arabian State Minister

The G20 Summit kicked-off with a flub for Angela Merkel, the host of the grand gathering, with the Chancellor appearing to bow to Saudi Arabia’s State Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf.

The Saudi official looked quite amused!

Source: Daily Mail UK

What is it with weak Western leaders bowing to Saudi Arabian officials? We all remember the uproar Obama caused when he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia.

The bow took place as the city of Hamburg is in utter chaos.

Yahoo reports:

Cars torched, delegations’ tyres slashed and flares fired at helicopters: Hamburg is living up to its militant reputation with activists giving the G20 a hostile welcome — and in imaginative ways.

On Thursday night on the eve of the summit of the leaders of the world’s top 20 economies including US President Donald Trump, a protest march in this port city by 12,000 people quickly got out of hand.

After a hard core of around 1,000 black-clad militants ignored authorities’ demands to remove their masks, riot police moved in with water cannon trucks and tear gas.

That set the stage for hours of running battles between police and protestors in the back streets of Germany’s second city that left 111 police officers injured, authorities said.

It was unclear how many protestors were hurt. Organiser Andreas Blechschmidt criticised what he said was a heavy-handed and “massive” police response with batons.

“The police should have reacted proportionally… It wasn’t necessary. There are a lot of people injured,” Blechschmidt said on N-TV. Around 30 people were arrested.

 

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