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| Concern Grows Over French-U.S. Relations | |
| 2003-02-27 | |
| Key lawmakers from President Jacques Chirac's party have voiced growing concern over the damage France's anti-war stance is having on relations with the United States and the future of the United Nations. Herve de Charette, a former foreign minister and lawmaker with the ruling center-right UMP party, was the latest to add his voice to a string of warnings about the consequences of an eventual French veto in the Security Council. Saying he believes war on Iraq is inevitable, de Charette told LCI television that any veto blocking a U.S-backed resolution seeking authorization for war "is a decision that has great ramifications, of great gravity." He noted that France, one of five permanent members of the Security Council that holds a veto, has not used one against the United States since the crisis over the Suez Canal in 1956. The UMP's president, Alain Juppe, the party's parliamentary head, Jacques Barrot, and Edouard Balladur, the head of parliament's foreign affairs commission, have also all warned that a veto risks a complete breakdown in relations with the United States and some European countries. They've noticed we're mildly unhappy with them. France has "avoided committing a mistake, which some are pushing for, that would have left it isolated: wrongly brandishing its right of veto," Juppe told a debate on the Iraq crisis in parliament on Wednesday. "A veto is unimaginable," Claude Goasguen, another UMP lawmaker, told the daily Le Monde in its Thursday edition. "We are not going to break the United Nations and Europe just to save a tyrant," he said, referring to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "We have taken into account the concern about not uselessly breaking relations with the United States," Barrot also told the paper. "We are not going to get to the point of getting into an argument with Western democracies." I believe you've passed that point, Mr. Barrot. He said strong trans-Atlantic ties were crucial "to build peace tomorrow." The comments do not indicate dwindling support for Chirac's drive to give weapons inspectors more time and muscle to disarm Baghdad peacefully, and the belief everything should be tried before resorting to war. But it does reflect mounting concern about the direction French foreign policy is taking, and where it will lead — perhaps a sign the pendulum in France may now be slowly starting to shift toward the position of the United States. Addressing Wednesday's parliamentary debate, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said France would not support the U.S.-backed proposal in the United Nations, and warned that war would be perceived as illegitimate. But he did not say France would use its veto to block military action. Ahead of the debate, an influential pro-American UMP lawmaker Pierre Lellouche told French radio: "We are not going to shoot them (the Americans) in the back." You better not, we don't like that kind of thing.
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| Posted by:Steve |