FRANCE’S president hosted Donald Trump at Bastille Day celebrations in Paris yesterday — after the two signalled a shift on Syria.

Emmanuel Macron paraded down the Champs-Elysees avenue in a jeep as the US president looked on and applauded.

A group of US soldiers marched in the parade, the leading five dressed in WWI uniforms to commemorate the 100th anniversary of their country’s entry into the imperialist carnage.

At a press conference on Thursday evening following talks at the Elysee Palace.

Mr Macron stated: “We now have a new approach in Syria, because we want results and we want to work closely together with all our partners including the US.

“We have one main goal which is to eradicate terrorism, no matter who they are, we want to build an inclusive and sustainable political solution.”

Mr Macron said that new approach meant abandoning his and Mr Trump’s predecessors goals of regime change against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He said: “I do not require Assad’s departure, that’s no longer a prerequisite for France. For seven years, we did not have an embassy in Damascus — and still we have no solution.”

Mr Trump claimed credit for the ceasefire in three south-western provinces of Syria, saying it had held for the previous five days only because he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed it face-to-face at last Friday’s G20 summit in Hamburg.

“We’re working on the second ceasefire in a very rough part of Syria,” he added.

Significantly, Russian conductor Valery Gergiev — who played a concert in Syria’s Palmyra in 2016 to celebrate its liberation from Isis — was set to lead the orchestra during last night’s fireworks display in Paris.

But on Thursday night the Mohammed Army — an alliance between al-Qaida-affiliated Hetesh and US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions in Quneitra province — rejected the ceasefire.

And earlier the Riad Hijab, leader of the Saudi-backed delegation at the Geneva peace talks, said the government “doesn’t want a political solution.”

The army said it had killed FSA commander Adnan al-Wadi on Wednesday in southern Daraa province.

international@peoples-press.com