French PM Speaks Mind On Iraq

BBC World Service ^ | April 3, 2003

[Scoop]

French PM speaks mind on Iraq

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, has said that the United States erred in going to war with Iraq "morally, politically and strategically". The criticism is unusually direct compared to the normally measured terms of diplomatic exchanges between allies.

Mr Raffarin stressed that France was not anti-American but said the friendship allowed for frankness.

He was speaking on the eve of Friday's summit in Paris of the foreign ministers of France, Russia and Germany - the three countries most vocal in their opposition to the war. We think that with this war we've gone beyond the law

"It should be said - there was an alternative to war," he declared.

France was on the side of peace and law, without being pacifist, Mr Raffarin said, "and we think that with this war we've gone beyond the law".

Mr Raffarin regretted the "extreme violence" of the war and said it was a grave political error to "make trouble" in the Middle East.

France was strongly opposed to military action without exhausting all other means of disarming Iraq, and led efforts at the UN Security Council to give the weapons inspectors more time.

The remarks by Mr Raffarin were the most direct since his foreign minister Dominique de Villepin argued the French stance to the Security Council last month - receiving rare applause.

The French foreign minister is then heading for a meeting at the Vatican with Pope John Paul and talks with the foreign minister of Italy, who backs the US decision to go to war.

[mc10]

stfu...girly boy

[sarasmom]

I see it differently.
It was the French, not the coalition, the USA,UK,AU etc, who let the air go out of a final, unanimous, last chance UN sponcered attempt at taking the trash out in Iraq.
Every death, both coalition and Iraqi,is courtesy of Chirac and his third worlder minions at the UN.The French delusions of grandeur are as obscene as the "Arab streets" illiterate mob mentallity.They have fed off each other for so long, they now believe their own ficticious press reports.
If you can not see this clearly yet, you have not been paying attention, IMHO.

[Enemy Of The State]

French PM Speaks Mind On Iraq


Wow! The joke and punchline all in the same sentence.

[Walnut]

I didn't know they had a mind. What mind? I think they meant out of thier mind s

[Nevermore]

Excuse me, did I hear "somebody" say something? No, I didn't think so: just another Frenchman passing gas...

Just who gives a D**M what any stinking Frenchman has to say about anything, ever again? The only value in listening to a Frenchman is for his comic value, and M. Raffakin just isn't that funny. He's only pathetic in his ignorance.