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Posted on 04/10/2003 8:07:15 PM PDT by blam
France faces isolation as strains show in anti-war axis
Summit Chirac under pressure at home and abroad
Paul Webster in Paris, Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow and John Hooper in Berlin
Friday April 11, 2003
The Guardian
Jacques Chirac faced a backlash from his peace campaigning yesterday after warnings from his own party that France had gone too far in opposing Britain and the US, and now faced international isolation. The French president, described by the newspaper Libération as the "king of peace without a crown", was criticised by leaders of his UMP party for three weeks of silence since the invasion.
Only yesterday, after the fall of Saddam Hussein, did Mr Chirac issue a comment. "France, like all democracies, rejoices," he said in a statement.
Mr Chirac now has to depend on spontaneous reconciliation with Britain and the US if France is to have a role in postwar reconstruction.
The repercussions will be tested in St Petersburg when Mr Chirac meets the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, today.
Mr Chirac called Tony Blair on Wednesday night to ask if France could be included in the immediate supply of humanitarian aid which he said was "the absolute priority". Mr Blair, who has been one of the targets of Mr Chirac's attacks, did not release his reply.
The president also asked the prime minister to raise the issue of French cooperation in Iraq with George Bush, whom the French president has not yet contacted. Chirac advisers said they were convinced the US would resist a "central role for the UN" which Mr Chirac has demanded. Hopes had now been placed on British influence with the US leader.
The UMP chairman, Alain Juppé, a former prime minister, has spoken privately on several occasions to Mr Chirac to warn that France risked international isolation by standing up to the Americans and refusing to support Britain's attempt to ensure a security council resolution legitimising the war.
Yesterday it became clear that Mr Juppé's feelings were shared by other party managers, including the parliamentary leader, Jacques Barrot. He complained about Mr Chirac's lack of enthusiasm for the coalition victory and called on him "to show his public support for the courage of the Americans and British in bringing down a dictatorship".
Another influential MP, the party's leader in the Paris city council, Claude Coasguen, said Mr Chirac had "to act swiftly to lessen the impact of violent anti-American remarks and rethink a number of provocative statements made without reflection".
Today's St Petersburg meeting was planned before the fall of Baghdad and was intended to seal an anti-war alliance which diplomats now consider fragile, as Russia is said to be anxious to restore good relations with the US. President Putin's public anti-war stance has reflected the anti-coalition stance of the Russian public.
But diplomatically the Kremlin has sought to heal the rift with Washington, Mr Putin announcing during the war that a US defeat was not in Russia's interests. While the rift over Iraq has publicly interrupted strong relations with Washington since September 11, privately diplomats say it is now "business as usual".
But the diplomatic tensions over the role of the UN are sure to be reignited. Gerhard Schröder announced yesterday that Germany would only take part in the reconstruction if the operation were carried out under UN auspices.
His ultimatum highlighted the point that Germany's position remains more uncompromising than that of France.
Mr Schröder's setting out of conditions will also alarm German industrialists hoping for lucrative contracts in the aftermath of the conflict.
(Screw France and Germany!)
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Sounds like face saving strategy. Germany knows they are going to be out in the cold and are trying to say it is their choice to freeze.
Keep Your dead economy out if Iraq
What lucrative contracts? Germany doesn't have a prayer, anymore than france does. Russia does have a chance provided they stop the dirty tricks immediately.
Yes, but the French are more obnoxious than the Germans.
Just like the French. Always there for you when they need you.
I certainly hope you are right, Torie. You would know Blair's stratigy better than me, but do you think that the Belfast meeting was pure show? It had me, and still does, greatly disturbed that the UN was going to be involved in something other than food. I would consider that a defeat on par with not getting Saddam back in 91. Are you convinced this won't happen and this Weasel axis is making a fool of itself?
They are beginning to understand there is no forgiveness on this side of the pond.
Hmmm, Germany & Russia [and later Vichy France] getting together to for an “anti-war alliance”. How does this sound familiar…?
Treaty of Nonaggression Between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
The Government of the German Reich and the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics desirous of strengthening the cause of peace between Germany and the U.S.S.R and proceeding from the fundamental provisions of the Neutrality Agreement concluded in April 1926 between Germany and the U.S.S.R., have reached the following agreement:
ARTICLE I
Both High Contracting Parties obligate, themselves to desist from any act of violence, any aggressive action, and any attack on each other, either individually or jointly with other powers.
ARTICLE II
Should one of the High Contracting Parties become the object of belligerent action by a third power, the other High Contracting Party shall in no manner lend its support to this third power.
ARTICLE III
The Governments of the two High Contracting Parties shall in the future maintain continual contact with one another for the purpose of consultation in order to exchange information on problems affecting their common interests.
ARTICLE IV
Neither of the two High Contracting Parties shall participate in any grouping of powers whatsoever that is directly or indirectly aimed at the other party.
ARTICLE V
Should disputes or conflicts arise between the High Contracting Parties over problems of one kind or another, both parties shall settle these disputes or conflicts exclusively through friendly exchange of opinion or, if necessary, through the establishment of arbitration commissions.
ARTICLE VI
The present treaty is concluded for a period of ten years, with the provision that, in so far as one of the High Contracting Parties does not denounce it one year prior to the expiration of this period, the validity of this treaty shall automatically be extended for another five years.
ARTICLE VI
The present treaty shall be ratified within the shortest possible time. The ratifications shall be exchanged in Berlin. The agreement shall enter into force as soon as it is signed. Done in duplicate, in the German and Russian languages.
MOSCOW, August 23, 1939.
For the Government of the German Reich:
V. RIBBENTROP
With full power of the Government of the U.S.S.R.:
V. MOLOTOV
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