Regards, Ivan
Posted on 03/19/2003 3:28:21 PM PST by MadIvan
FRANCE’S Foreign Minister complained personally to Jack Straw yesterday about the way Tony Blair had attacked his country during the Commons debate authorising British troops to go to war.
Dominique de Villepin made his extraordinary telephone call on the eve of an EU summit at which the Prime Minister and President Chirac will meet for the first time since the collapse of attempts to secure a second UN resolution issuing a disarmament ultimatum to President Saddam Hussein.
M de Villepin deplored the language used by Mr Blair and other ministers in blaming French “intransigence” for the failure of the diplomatic effort.
“We can well understand the internal pressure being exerted on the British Government. But the words used are not worthy of a country which is both a friend and a European partner. This presentation of events is inconsistent with the facts and will mislead no one,” he said.
M Chirac and Mr Blair will sit opposite each other at the three-hour summit dinner tonight, but Downing Street flatly refused to soothe the French by backing down. “We stand by everything we have said on this issue,” Mr Blair’s official spokesman said. He also accused the French of encouraging Saddam. “If you neuter the threat, you embolden the tyrant,” he said.
French officials made it clear that M Chirac was in no mood for reconciliation. “It’s too early to smoothe this over,” one official said.
The officials said that President Chirac and his team were determined to keep polemics out of the quarrel over Iraq, but the attack by Mr Blair had exceeded normal bounds. Paris is incensed by what its sees as a self-serving distortion of M Chirac’s position by London and Washington.
Both sides are aware that the feud over whether to authorise war on Iraq is symptomatic of a deeper struggle between two opposing European camps, one led by Britain on one side and France and Germany on the other.
Tensions were further fuelled by the discovery of listening devices on the telephone lines of the British, French and German offices at the European Union headquarters in Brussels.
EU officials were unable to identify the origin of the illegal taps, which appeared to have been in place for years, but the French newspaper Le Figaro identified America as the chief suspect.
The devices were found on lines belonging to six member states between the switchboard and the national delegation rooms in the eight-year-old council building, which is home to regular ministerial and summit sessions, as well as the base of Javier Solana, the EU Foreign Policy chief. They were discovered in late February during a routine security trawl.
The six governments — Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria — were informed immediately but the news was kept secret while security services tried to find out whether any council officials were involved.
“We are obviously very concerned about this. We are following the investigation closely and will offer whatever help we can,” a British official said.
Noelle Lenoir, the French Minister for Europe, said: “This is truly shocking. This is not at all in the traditions of this house.”
So far no culprit has been identified. Speculation was rife in France that the United States might be involved, since it is regularly accused by the French of using espionage to further commercial interests.
Sven-Olaf Petersson, the Swedish EU Ambassador, said: “They were very sophisticated installations, which only a few intelligence services are able to install . . . There are many indications that they were installed with the building (in) 1994-95.”
Regards, Ivan
HEY FRANCE:
Regards, Ivan
Here's an apology: we're sorry we ever sent a single soldier to save your filthy, Saddam-buggered asses in 1944. Now go piss up a rope, you duplicitous cowards.
Sincerely,
The Anglosphere
A few days ago I heard a radio ad for "La Madeleine", a french-food restaurant chain. During the ad I wondered how the French boycott was affecting them, when suddenly on the end of the ad I heard an obviously tacked-on audio blurb which said, "La Madeleine is proud to be a Texas-owned business for twenty-five years". LOL!
French officials made it clear that M Chirac was in no mood for reconciliation. “It’s too early to smoothe this over,” one official said.
I believe any smooth over, like the start of the war, will be at a time of Blair and Bush's choosing.
De Villipin makes me feel like taking a 'France" too. lol, doesn't his name literally mean 'vile needle'?
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