US first lady welcomed in Belgium with music and fashion

U.S. first lady Melania Trump returned to the international stage Wednesday as she mingled with the spouses of America's closest allies over classical music, fashion and chocolate.

As President Donald Trump harangued Germany and other allies at a NATO summit in Brussels, his wife chatted amiably with some of their spouses at a music conservatory in a wooded park in Waterloo, near the Belgian capital.

First lady Melania Trump, center, arrives with other first ladies during a group photo of NATO heads of state and government at Park Cinquantenaire in Brussels, Belgium, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

There, she and 10 other spouses were given a tour of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, a training center for gifted young musicians housed in a modernistic glass building.

Mrs. Trump, 48, wore a navy blue sleeveless Calvin Klein calf-length dress with white and green detail on one collarbone and white Christian Louboutin heels with their trademark red soles. Klein is an all-American fashion house, but its chief creative officer, Raf Simons, is Belgian.

Amelie Derbaudrenghien, the partner of Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, second left, speaks with U.S. first lady Melania Trump, center, and French first lady Brigitte Macron, second right, during a group photo at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo, Belgium, during a spouses program on the sidelines of the NATO summit on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

In the evening, she changed into a sleeveless white Elie Saab cocktail dress for a dinner at the Art and History Museum at the Cinquantenaire, a landmark city park.

Neither of the Trumps took a drink as they chatted with other heads of state at a cocktail reception, only hours after the U.S. president accused Germany of being "captive to Russia" for buying natural gas from that country and chided other allies for their levels of defense spending. The president does not drink alcohol.

First lady Melania Trump, center, extends her arms to help balance herself on stage as she arrives with other first ladies during a group photo of NATO heads of state and government at Park Cinquantenaire in Brussels, Belgium, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. NATO leaders gathered in Brussels Wednesday for a two-day summit to discuss Russia, Iraq and their mission in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Holding hands, the Trumps next walked up the steps of the museum, where the president joined leaders for a working dinner and the first lady joined a separate dinner for spouses.

The trip marked the former model's return to the international stage after she dropped out of public sight in May for nearly a month, including five days in the hospital following surgery for a benign kidney condition. Her husband later told reporters that she had had a "big operation" and was under doctors' orders not to fly for a month.

U.S. first lady Melania Trump, center, listens to a concert at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo, Belgium, during a spouses program on the sidelines of the NATO summit on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Her office clarified that only international travel was forbidden for that period of time, and the first lady did not accompany the president to Canada for an earlier world leaders' summit or to Singapore for his historic one-on-one meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, both in the first half of June.

There was no word on how Mrs. Trump would spend her second day in Brussels. The couple travels next to Britain, where planned engagements include tea with Queen Elizabeth, and to Helsinki, Finland, where the U.S. president is to hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Amelie Derbaudrenghien, the partner of Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, left, U.S. first lady Melania Trump, center, and French first lady Brigitte Macron applaud during at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo, Belgium, during a spouses program on the sidelines of the NATO summit on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

As the spouses arrived at the music academy in the early afternoon, they were greeted by Amelie Derbaudrenghien, the partner of Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, and Ingrid Schulerud, the wife of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

They were then escorted into a music auditorium with tall glass windows offering views into the woods behind the school for performances of Tchaikovsky's Valse Scherzo and music by Hubay and Piazzolla.

President Donald Trump, right, and first lady Melania Trump, left, talk with German Chancellor Angela Merkel second from the left and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels, Belgium, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

During an intermission, they posed for a group photo, viewed a display of hats by Belgian designer Fabienne Delvigne and were offered delicacies created by Herman Van Dender, a pastry maker and chocolatier who is the official supplier to the Belgian royal house.

French First lady Brigitte Macron, left, and US First Lady Melania Trump arrive ahead of a NATO spouses dinner at Jubilee Museum in Brussels, Belgium, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. NATO leaders gathered in Brussels Wednesday for a two-day summit to discuss Russia, Iraq and their mission in Afghanistan. (Stephanie Lecocq/Pool Photo via AP)

Mrs. Trump sat between French first lady Brigitte Macron, who was dressed in white, and Derbaudrenghien, in vibrant yellow, during the concert. Other participating first ladies included Emine Erdogan of Turkey and Mojca Stropnik of Slovenia, Mrs. Trump's native country. Gauthier Destenay, the husband of Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, was the only man in the group.

At one point during the concert, Mrs. Trump and some of the others applauded prematurely. Catching themselves, they smiled and kept on listening.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran marked the 47th anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution on Wednesday as the country's theocracy remains under pressure, both from U.S. President Donald Trump suggesting sending another aircraft carrier group to the Mideast and a public angrily denouncing their bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.

Trump made the suggestion in an interview published Tuesday night as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, long an Iran hawk, visited Washington to push the U.S. toward the strictest-possible terms in any agreement reached with Tehran in the fledgling nuclear talks.

A top Iranian security official planned to visit Qatar on Wednesday after earlier traveling to Oman, which has mediated this latest round of negotiations.

On Iranian state television, authorities broadcast images of thousands taking to the streets across the country Wednesday to support the theocracy and its 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But on Tuesday night, as government-sponsored fireworks lit the darkened sky, witnesses heard shouts from people's homes in the Iranian capital, Tehran, of “Death to the dictator!”

In the streets, people waved images of Khamenei and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, alongside Iranian and Palestinian flags. Some chanted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Iran's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who earlier ordered the country's foreign minister to enter talks with the Americans, was expected to later give a speech at Tehran's Azadi Square.

Among Iran's 85 million people, there is a hard-line element of support for Iran's theocracy, including members of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which crucially put down the protests last month in a bloody suppression that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained. Others often take part in demonstrations as they are government employees or to enjoy the carnival atmosphere of a government-sponsored holiday.

As the commemoration took place, senior Iranian security official Ali Larijani left Oman for Qatar. That Mideast nation hosts a major U.S. military installation that Iran attacked in June after the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear sites during the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

Qatar also has been a key negotiator in the past with Iran, with which it shares a massive offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf.

Speaking to the Russian state channel RT, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran still does “not have full trust for the Americans.”

“Last time we negotiated, last June we were in the middle of negotiation then they decided to attack us and that was a very very bad experience for us,” Iran's top diplomat said. “We need to make sure that that scenario is not repeated and this is mostly up to America.”

Despite that concern, Araghchi said it could be possible “to come to a better deal than Obama,” referencing the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers Iran reached when former U.S. President Barack Obama was in office. Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew America from the accord.

The United States has moved the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, ships and warplanes to the Middle East to pressure Iran into an agreement and have the firepower necessary to strike the Islamic Republic should Trump choose to do so.

Already, U.S. forces shot down a drone they said got too close to the Lincoln and came to the aid of a U.S.-flagged ship that Iranian forces tried to stop in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.

Trump told the news website Axios that he was considering sending a second carrier to the region, noting, “We have an armada that is heading there and another one might be going."

It remains unclear what carrier could go. The USS George H.W. Bush has left Norfolk, Virginia, according to U.S. Navy Institute News. The USS Gerald R. Ford remains in the Caribbean after the U.S. military raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

A cleric crosses an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)