Germany: Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi snubbed by Obama?

The Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi was seemingly ignored by US President Barack Obama at the G7 summit on Monday, June 8. Al-Abadi sat next to Obama while he was discussing with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the Managing Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde, and the US president did not acknowledge him. The White House denied the purported 'snub.' The heads of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OSCE), the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the United Nations (UN) and the Commission of the African Union met with the G7 leaders alongside Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The heads of state and government of all G7 nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA - were already in Bavaria for the two-day G7 summit. This year's gathering is estimated to cost just over €130 million ($144 million) according to official figures; while the German Taxpayers Federation believes it may cost the German state close to €360 million ($400 million). The G7, formerly known as the G8, excluded Russia from the group of industrialised democracies in March 2014, citing its reunification with Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine as the principle reasons.