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Bush and Chirac in first call since February
President Jacques Chirac spoke to President Bush today for the first time since February. The 20-minute telephone call about the war in Iraq had been "positive", said a spokeswoman for M Chirac. The French President told Mr Bush of "France's willingness to act in a pragmatic way on issues relating to the post-war reconstruction of Iraq". She added: âFrance believes the international community must do all it can so that things work in its favour and involve the United Nations as soon as possible."âItsâ being France, or the International Community? The call came after Dominique de Villepin, France's Foreign Minister, moved to rebuild bridges with a Bush Administration infuriated by French opposition to the war in Iraq. M de Villepin said that he had a "pragmatic" telephone conversation with Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, over the Middle East. Officials have suggested that France would back away from threats to veto any United Nations resolutions that failed to give the UN a dominant role in Iraq. "Our aim is not to make intransigent protests all the time, "It's useless to go back over what has divided us," M de Villepin said after a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels last night. "We need an international community that is united." Commentators are beginning to point out that the so-called "peace camp", headed by France, Germany and Russia, ended in failure and now has less influence over global affairs than ever. âWeâre relevant! We really are! I swear! Please let us be relevant? "If Washington tries to strong-arm Syria, what can France do to help?" said Le Figaro today. "Why would France be more efficient in the Syrian crisis than it was in the Iraqi crisis? These questions point to the limits of French Many analysts say that if France wants to play a role in world affairs, it has no option but to start co-operating with the US. But M Chirac could face a backlash from the French public for warming to the White House. Many French people, including well-educated, middle-class white-collar workers, view the Bush Administration with deep distrust, and it is not uncommon to hear them explain that George Bush is more dangerous than Saddam Hussein. Sigh⊠Yes, yes, regularly he tortures us. He makes us put up with listening to blather from CHIRAC. The French view was summed up by a front-page cartoon in Le Monde today, which showed American intellectuals working in a library. In the place of pens, they held missiles. Hmm. Interesting analogy. If one were to carry it over to the French, what would they be holdingâŠ? Suggestions? Posted by: Tadderly 2003-04-15 |
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