Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi speaks in Baghdad.(AFP/Pool/File/Mohammed Messara)
Posted on 10/31/2004 3:18:19 PM PST by TexKat
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi warned France against appeasing insurgents in order to secure the release of two of its nationals held hostage in the country as he prepared to travel to Brussels.
"France is bogged down by the past," said Allawi responding to a question by reporters on France's support for a conference by Iraqi civil society groups to be held in parallel to an official meeting on Iraqi elections scheduled for the end of the month in Egypt.
"France must revise its policies towards Iraq because its actions and statements are driven by the fact two Frenchmen are hold hostage in Iraq."
Earlier France's ambassador in Iraq said that French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, abducted in the country on August 20, were in "good health".
"We know the hostages were in good health," Bernard Bajolet told reporters after meeting with the Sunni Committee of Muslim Scholars, which has influence over some elements of the insurgency in the country.
Allawi said his government was making strides in winning support from more countries in its effort to take control of the security situation in the war-ravaged country ahead of January's elections.
"I will be building on this in Amman, Brussels and Italy," he said.
Allawi is scheduled to attend a European summit in Brussels on November 4 and 5 and is expected to discuss with leaders the country's debt and preparations for the Egypt conference at the end of November.
"The government is successfully building an international consensus to help Iraq face its difficulties," he said.
"This is why terrorists are targeting foreigners and trying to persuade some foreign governments to recognise them as legitimate political actors."
Following a botched attempt by a French member of parliament to save the hostages in September, France has said that it was supportive of the idea that some elements of the insurgency would attend the Egypt conference.
"Iraq's political forces will decide who attends the conference," Allawi said.
The conference scheduled for November 22-23 in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh will be attended by Iraq, its neighbors, Egypt, the Group of Eight leading industrialized countries, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
France, which had strong ties with the former regime of Saddam Hussein before 1991, was strongly opposed to the US-led war on Iraq in 2003.
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi speaks in Baghdad.(AFP/Pool/File/Mohammed Messara)
Ping
Ummmmmm.
I'm supportive of the idea that on their way to the conference . . . some elements of the insurgency should take an extended detour to GITMO.
You'd think the French would have learned their lesson about appeasement a long time ago.
Allawi speaks his mind, and doesn't sugar-coat what he says. I wish our politicians would do the same.
France will stab you quicker than you can blink.
So, the children of Vichey France are now in charge.
"We know the hostages were in good health", Bernard Bajolet
told reporters after meeting with the Sunni Committee of Muslim Scholars......
Now there's a major oxymoron....."Muslim Scholars".
LOL.
"You'd think the French would have learned their lesson about appeasement a long time ago."
A scorpion is a scorpion. A tiger is a tiger. A Frenchman is a Frenchman. Frenchmen do what Frenchmen do.
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