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| Iraq | |
| French FM offers help to end Iraq crisis | |
| 2007-08-20 | |
| BAGHDAD - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner made a surprise visit to Iraq on Sunday and offered his country’s support to try to end the turmoil, as local leaders agreed on the agenda for a key summit. Kouchner’s visit is the first by a French minister since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Paris vehemently opposed, putting a heavy strain on relations with Washington. Shortly after his arrival, Kouchner visited the fortified UN compound in Baghdad to pay tribute to 22 people killed when the world body’s former headquarters was hit by a powerful bomb exactly four years ago. Among those who died was the head of the mission Sergio Vieira de Mello, a personal friend of Kouchner, and three UN officials who had worked with the French minister when he was the United Nations administrator in Kosovo. Accompanied by his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari and the UN deputy special representative in Iraq, Michael von der Schulenburg, Kouchner laid a wreath in front of a simple memorial to those killed in the blast. Kouchner offered to support efforts by Iraqis and the United Nations to halt the bloodshed. “We are ready to be useful, but the solution is in Iraqi hands, not in French hands,” he told reporters after holding talks with Zebari. Kouchner three-day visit, so soon after President Nicolas Sarkozy made a fence-building trip to the United States, will be seen as a sign that France is ready to seek a role in Iraq. But he made it clear that France had no regrets about its original decision to oppose US intervention in Iraq, and insisted there could be no military solution to the conflict. Later Sunday, Kouchner was to meet Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki who is due to leave on a three-day visit to Syria on Monday.
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #12 When no one from the ENA or ENS is in the French administration, then will it be possible for us to be allies. Until then, the French elite will continue to assure that France's primary foreign policy goal is to subvert America, regardless of what it's President wants, just as the Department of State/CIA runs its own independent foreign policy. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-08-20 16:16 |
| #11 Does this mean the wife and I can start drinking White-Star again? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2007-08-20 16:15 |
| #10 JFM, I have faith in the average person in France, but little with its entrenched bureaucracy. I hope President Sarkozy can change the attitude of the French governing class (and MSM) regarding the United States, but until I see evidence that such changes have taken place, I will continue to "(mis)trust, but verify". French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is indeed an honorable man, and understands the world we currently inhabit, instead of the dream world the rest of the French governing class seems to live in. The best thing France can do to prove itself truly on the right track is to cooperate with the investigation into the "oil for palaces" schemes of the UN and Saddam Hussein, and punish those Frenchmen who are guilty of aiding and abetting those criminals. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-08-20 14:51 |
| #9 Can't we talk 'em into helping the Muj instead? |
| Posted by: mojo 2007-08-20 11:20 |
| #8 I knew the world was completely upside-down. So we have lost Britian and gained France. Does this mean all score cards will be printed in two languages now ? |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-08-20 11:07 |
| #7 Now you must remember that after 62 years of brain washing teh French as a people are anti-american so for now teh recovery is frail In 2x4s defense, remember that we have 62 years of considering the French as a people who would do everything in their power to screw us, no matter what the circumstances. Let us hope Sarkozy can change opinions on both sides. Personally, I am sceptical, but will be delighted to be proved wrong. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2007-08-20 09:42 |
| #6 Tw, Make no mistake: anumber of people who voted Sarkozy voted him despite his pro-americanism (and left papers played this trulmp to the hilt). Also the sentence about the repentent sinners is not mine but from the Christian Bible. |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-08-20 08:04 |
| #5 Beautifully said, JFM. We'll keep rooting for President Sarkozy and his (and that of the many wise Frenchmen and women who voted him into office) vision of France. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-08-20 07:37 |
| #4 hear hear JFM, thank God Sarkozy is in! |
| Posted by: Red Dawg 2007-08-20 06:54 |
| #3 Bernard Kouchner has coauthored a book exposing the crimes of Saddam (and if my memoryt is any good justifying his topping) a crime for which he (Kouchner) was pilloried by all the Comunisto-Vichisto-Chiraquian intellectuals and MSM (99% of them). So please refraining of comments klike the one from twovyfour. The situation is: there ia new team in charge and thuis team is trying to undo the harm done since De Gaulle. Now you must remember that after 62 years of brain washing teh French as a people are anti-american so for now teh recovery is frail: Sarkozy has to compose both with his public opinion, with our friends of the MSM (spit) and with teh available political and administrative personel. In addition in five years he will face a new election. The recovery in French American relations will be solid only when the population has been deprogrammedf and this will take decades. So keep in perspective that in five years FRance could beciome an enemy again but in the interim try to encourage the new administration instead of doung such disparaging comments. There will be more joy in heaven for one repentant sinner than for one hundred justs. |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-08-20 05:00 |
| #2 Ahm, my keyboard is acting up. oficil hd to be hospitlized = official had to be hospitalized etc. ;-) |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-08-20 00:20 |
| #1 French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner made a surprise visit to Iraq on Sunday and offered his country’s support to try to end the turmoil... by promising to deliver at lest 5k of Peugeot cars for automobile-dafés, stipulating that it may provide a needed distraction for jihadis, "idle hands tend to blow up", he said. After the visit, Iraqi officials practiced rolling eyes and one oficil hd to be hospitlized as he was unable to stop laughing hysterically when his collegue quoted some selected Kouchner's utterances. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-08-20 00:17 |