Upcoming, our next episode of "As the Worm Turns"...
Posted on 06/05/2004 10:08:18 AM PDT by RobFromGa
PARIS : After more than a year of acrimony over Iraq, US President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac will try to repair transatlantic ties when they meet here ahead of D-Day commemorations.
Bush will arrive in the French capital amid tight security on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, an occasion that has provided Paris and Washington with a golden opportunity to publicly bury the hatchet.
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After talks in Rome with close Iraq war ally Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Bush will try to win support from Chirac, who staunchly opposed the invasion, for a UN resolution on the June 30 power transfer in Iraq.
The US president is due to arrive in Paris at about 2:30 pm (1230 GMT) Saturday.
The two leaders will meet at the Elysee presidential palace in the French capital late in the day. The talks will be followed by a joint press conference and a working dinner.
The meeting -- their first face-to-face talks since September last year -- is the first in a series of summits, with the Group of Eight meeting in the southern US state of Georgia and the NATO summit in Istanbul set for later this month.
Some 5,000 police officers and 1,500 soldiers have been deployed in Paris ahead of Bush's visit, with all of France on red alert throughout the weekend as some 20 heads of state or government visit to remember D-Day.
Thousands of anti-war protesters are expected to march on Saturday but have been barred from entering the central Paris area where Bush is to spend most of his visit -- a sector that includes the US embassy and the Elysee.
President to speak this afternoon in France with Jacques.
Bush Senses Spirit of Unity on Iraq, UN Deal CloseSat Jun 5, 2004 12:47 PM ET
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PARIS (Reuters) - President Bush said on Saturday he sensed a spirit of unity in the international community to help Iraq that would result soon in a U.N. Security Council resolution, but Russia and France kept pressing demands.
Several thousand anti-war protesters gathered in Paris as Bush went into talks with President Jacques Chirac that he hopes will improve ties between the two countries strained by the Iraq war, which France opposed.
Chirac, whose country has a veto on the Security Council, wants a fixed timetable for withdrawing U.S.-led forces from Iraq. Russia, another veto-wielding member, also wants changes to a U.S. and British draft resolution endorsing a handover to an Iraqi interim government on June 30.
"I sense a spirit of unity in terms of working with the new Iraqi government," Bush told a news conference in Rome earlier.
"I'm confident we will get (a resolution) soon," he said.
Bush thanked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of his closest allies in Europe, for helping to negotiate with some Security Council members who opposed the Iraq war.
1:25 EST for the news conference..about 6 minutes from now.
TEN MINUTE WARNING-
FNC says this Informal Press Conference will be on in ten minutes at 1:25pm.
Historical moment ping!!!
thanks, Howlin, I was getting lonely.
This should be interesting. I hope Bush doesn't overdo the getting along stuff but I expect he will.
Do you think Chirac will come to Crawford and "stare at cows"? ;^)
BUSH IS BRILLIANT!!...allow me to summarize this for you all. After visiting Normandy, which reminds th world,a nd the French of the scarifice that the US amde to free Europe and defeat the Nazis, France is now going to veto the UN Security council resoultion? I think not?..and The French who would veto, these are the "allies" Kerry has been saying we need, that he will embrace?..
Upcoming, our next episode of "As the Worm Turns"...
LOL! I'm sure that was EXACTLY what our President was thinking!
"Yeah sure I'll cover up your oil for food scandal, what's an ally for anyway."
At this very moment, getting Iraq stabilized is the most important thing we are dealing with. But then, you already know that. The oil for food scandal will probably be brought out by the Iraqis themselves in time.
President Bush is brilliant, as usual. The dems, Kerry, etc. will no longer be able to say that President Bush doesn't get along with our allies. That they would do better.
They are still meeting right now, FNC is standing by.
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