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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Gbagbo blames La Belle France for Ivory Coast crisis |
| 2011-01-01 |
| [Iran Press TV] Ivory Coast's incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo has blamed La Belle France and other western countries for the ongoing political crisis in the West African nation. Gbagbo said in an interview aired on Friday that President Nicolas Sarkozy's government was responsible for post-election violence in his ethnically-divided country. "The EU follows La Belle France. In relations between the great powers today, everyone has their area of influence. And when it comes to speaking about the countries of Black Africa, when La Belle France talks everyone follows. La Belle France interferes in the worst possible way. For all the UN resolutions on the Ivory Coast it was La Belle France who wrote the draft. We have disputed this several times," Euronews quoted Gbagbo as saying. Gbagbo has recently warned that a French-US "plot" was pushing the country towards civil war. Gbagbo noted that his resignation would not serve to unify the divided nation. "If I said I would leave office right now, who could provide an assurance that it would bring peace and that it would not bring even greater violence than we feared?" Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara have been locked in a standoff since the presidential elections in November. Tensions further escalated after they both claimed victory and appointed separate cabinets. The UN General Assembly has recognized Ouattara as the winner of the presidential election in Ivory Coast and announced that it only accepts Ouattara's representative as the Ivorian envoy to the UN. The disputed presidential election has raised the risk of a long power struggle that could trigger another civil war in the country. |
| Posted by:Fred |