France's Hollande strikes back at Trump over Paris remarks

In response to unfavorable comments over Paris, French President Francois Hollande on Saturday warned his American counterpart Donald Trump over showing "defiance towards an allied country."

"There is terrorism and we must fight it together. I think that it is never good to show the smallest defiance toward an allied country. I wouldn't do it with the United States and I'm urging the U.S. president not to do it with France," Hollande said on the sidelines of the Paris agriculture fair.

"I won't make comparisons but here, people don't have access to guns. Here, you don't have people with guns opening fire on the crowd simply for the satisfaction of causing drama and tragedy," he added.

Hollande called on Trump to show more solidarity after he told the story of a friend named "Jim" who thought that "Paris is no longer Paris" after a series of attacks which rocked the French capital.

"I don't go there anymore. Paris is no longer Paris," Trump quoted as saying Jim "a very, very substantial guy" -- who was once a regular visitor to the French capital.

At the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor in Maryland on Friday, Trump made the comments to endorse his claim that "national security begins with border security" and defend his order to ban travellers from some Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for security reasons.

Paris was stunned by a series of terrorist attacks which left 130 victims in November 2015. Other assaults targeting several symbolic sites in the vibrant city have been foiled. Endit