RE Chirac: see my post #1153.
His usual modus operandi when he does not get what he wants during the negotiations.
I was not in the loop for a while but understand that Chirac was telling people that there was going to be a demand for a ceasefire or something? So now he's resorted to lying. He's such a POS.
The only thing Chirac has ever said that I agree with is when he condemned Clinton’s foreign policy as essentially brain-dean, declaring “that the position of the leader of the free world is vacant.” LA Times, 2/1/04.