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仏ル・カナル・アンシェネ記事を、不気味な統一教会支配下の米ワシントンタイムズが気にしている記事。
イラク「戦争」に反対したフランスは、今、イラク派遣に「観測気球を上げている」の主旨である。
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France's investigative weekly, Le Canard Enchainee
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20030710-063956-1866r.htm
Paris floats trial baloon on troops
By Elizabeth Bryant
United Press International
PARIS, July 10 (UPI) -- Speculation is growing that France, which adamantly opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, may be asked to send troops to the Middle East country to help secure its peace.
In recent days, U.S. diplomats, lawmakers and even U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have floated the possibility of an eventual presence of French or German troops in Baghdad, as part of some larger multilateral stabilization force.
The rhetoric is echoed in France, albeit laced with qualifications. Indeed, the French vision of a multinational peacekeeping force may again put Paris at odds with Washington, and possibly with other European Union governments.
The latest remarks were made by French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, and published Thursday in a wide-ranging interview with France's conservative Le Figaro newspaper.
"There is some inconsistency in France participating in a coalition force, after it did not support a war, and even defended an alternative solution based on the peaceful disarmament of Iraq," the foreign minister acknowledged in the interview, before appearing to set out a series of conditions for a French troop presence.
The French government would only consider sending troops to Baghdad, de Villepin said, as part of a larger United Nations peacekeeping force, and under a clear UN mandate.
De Villepin also reiterated previous French demands that the United Nations lead efforts to stabilize Iraq and ensure its postwar political transition. But those duties are already being carried out by the United States, and by Britain, to a smaller extent. The Bush administration ruled out a leading U.N. role weeks ago.
In an interview published Tuesday in La Provence newspaper, the U.S. Ambassador to France, Howard Leach, also suggested that a French troop presence in Iraq "could not be excluded."
And in testimony before a congressional committee Wednesday, Rumsfeld agreed with senators that a greater NATO presence in Iraq -- possibly including France and Germany -- might help ease the hefty costs of peacekeeping.
"It's not very surprising the United States would want to involve other countries, and especially its allies," said Philippe Moreau Defarges, a specialist on multilateral issues at the French Institute for International Relations, in Paris. "And if it can be done, it's a very reasonable step toward reconciliation between Paris and Washington."
Relations between the two capitals chilled rapidly last fall over France's strident opposition to military intervention in Iraq -- and French efforts to build international support for its position.
Today, French and U.S. officials insist ties are on the mend. Reality, from still sluggish Bordeaux wine exports, to a downgraded U.S. presence at a recent French air show, attests they are far from perfect.
Speculation French peacekeeping troops would eventually be invited to Baghdad was floated several weeks ago by France's investigative weekly, Le Canard Enchainee. On Wednesday, the newspaper reported that France's Ambassador to Washington, Jean-Daniel Levitte, sent a telegram to Paris about Bush administration intentions to "internationalize" the military presence in Iraq.
"This concerns a major political issue for the Bush team," Levitte wrote, according to the newspaper. "That makes it more likely that the United States will ask us, sooner or later, to contribute to Iraq's stabilization."
But Le Canard suggested the French response to Washington's overtures is likely to be less than overwhelming. French President Jacques Chirac may have a hard time sending troops to Iraq "following a war he himself declared illegitimate," one diplomat told the newspaper.
"It won't be very easy to reach an agreement about the way in which French troops could be used in Iraq," agreed Moreau Defarges. "If this request by the United States develops into a real request, it could be the beginning of difficult negotiations between Paris and Washington about the way these troops could be used in Iraq."
The negotiations may include the past French oil and other business interests in Iraq, which remain in limbo.
Both France and Russia racked up a mountain of paper contracts with the deposed Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, with few put into action. Whether they will now be honored remains an open question. And French businessmen still fret they will be cut out of future reconstruction contracts because of Paris' staunch opposition to the war.
"Three subjects need to be frankly addressed with Washington," French UN diplomats wrote Elysee presidency and Foreign Ministry in Paris late June, according to Le Canard. "Our contracts in Iraq, financial transparency, and the calendar for the political transition and the reinforcement of the United Nations role."
French and U.S. officials do not appear to have directly discussed a troop presence in Iraq, one source in Paris said. Instead, both sides seem to be sending trial balloons through the media.
Very preliminary discussions on French military cooperation in a possible war in Iraq took place last December. But Paris and Washington soon diverged sharply over the legitimacy of such a war, with French officials backing U.N. arms inspections to the end.
"This is obviously a very calculated statement by de Villepin," the observer said, of the French Foreign Minister's latest suggestions about a potential troop presence in Iraq. "He knows its going to be played up, knows its going to resonate both in Europe and in the United States."
But de Villepins' latest diplomatic overture may not help the American cause.
Perhaps tellingly, the French foreign minister made no mention of France sending its troops under NATO command, an idea discussed by U.S. lawmakers during Rumsfeld's testimony Wednesday. Indeed, de Villepin's insistence of a U.N. leadership role may create fresh divisions within the European Union, if France's war allies -- Belgium and Germany -- throw their weight behind its new peacekeeping conditions.
"That's not to say there can't be some creative thinking in NATO to work this through," the observer said. "But it would mean engaging the French."
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