JOHANNESBURG: The White House has mounted a new verbal attack on South Africa over the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg this weekend. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly hit back at South African President Cyril Ramaphosa after Pretoria refused to allow a U.S. embassy delegation to take part in the summit’s closing ceremony.
The U.S. takes over the G-20’s presidency next year. But Ramaphosa’s spokesperson told reporters here at the summit their president won’t perform the ceremonial handover to a junior diplomat. Washington had asked to send the embassy’s chargé d’affaires to the ceremony.
In what is becoming an increasingly fractious back-and-forth of bitter statements between Pretoria and Washington on several issues around the G-20, Kelly told Fox News Digital,